Kaieteur News

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February 16, 2013 - Vol. 7 No. 07 - Price $80 kaieteurnews@yahoo.com Website:http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com Guyana’s largest selling daily & New York’s most popular weekly

Pensioner gets drunk to kill

Tucville mechanic Tells arresting ranks, “when the rain finish then I going with yall’

Protest of Marriot Hotel construction continues

Govt. fueling unemployment among youths - YCT

Death of 11 passengers at Mazaruni…

MARAD recommends multiple charges for captains, crewmen

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Kaieteur News

Saturday February 16, 2013

Slain Linden child laid to rest

Friends of Jamal Naranjan Scores turned out at the Mackenzie Sports Club Ground yesterday, to pay their final respects to little Jamal Naranjan, and to show their support for his bereaved relatives, during a poignant funeral service, which was conducted by Pastor Selwyn Sills.

The child was later interred at the Christianburg Cemetery.

Prior to the Service at the Sports club, several persons had converged at the Buck Hill residence of the victim, to get a glimpse of him as he lay in his small, white and gold casket.

Many were reduced to tears as they viewed the child; his distraught mother Neisha Naranjan sobbed heartbreakingly.

Narajan was knifed to death, last Wednesday, by his mother’s former lover Rawle Samuels, who had reportedly, earlier raped the woman’s relative. Among those who attended at the funeral service were Leader of the Opposition David Granger, officials of the Ministry of Education, Members of Parliament Vanessa Kissoon and Rennis Morian, and Regional Chairman Sharma Solomon, all of whom offered

their condolences, and words of encouragement to the bereaved.

Member of Parliament Kissoon said that she admired the fortitude of Jamal’s mother, Neisha Naranjan. She added that she did not know, whether she would be able to stand in similar circumstances.

She questioned, “What manner of man could look at an innocent child and do such a thing?”

Another Member of Parliament Rennis Morian while reflecting on the tragedy declared that a paradigm shift is needed for

transforming Region Ten, as people are in great distress.

Morian called on the business community and major stakeholders to work together to bring about such transformation.

A great uncle of the child, reminiscing on the short life of his nephew noted, “It could have been anybody’s child, making it even more painful is the fact that this individual (accused), would take Jamal to school and romp with him.” The man said that

Jamal’s killer had kneeled on his ( Jamal’s) hands as he plunged the knife into his body, while the child pleaded, “Rawlie, what ya doing?’He had only moments earlier shouted to his aunt to run away from his attacker, the man noted.

The child’s aunt, who was sexually assaulted by the man moments before he attack the child, said that the child died to save her.

A teacher from the Burnham Drive Nursery,

where Jamal had been a pupil, described him as loving , caring, a little mischievous, and full of energy, while the pupils of the school sang a goodbye song, dedicated to him. Assistant Chief Executive Officer of the Early Childhood Fraternity, Ingrid Trotman, recalled that the day was a very sad one. She however posited that when such things happen, they happen for a purpose-they happen to make us stronger. (Enid Joaquin)

DO YOU KNOW THAT JAGDEO’S BEST FRIEND IS THE ONLY PERSON IN GUYANA TO OWN THREE MEDIA HOUSES ...

Radio, Television and Newspaper?

Dr. Bobby Ramroop

1) Channel 28 now TVG 28 2) A radio station - 89.5FM 3) Guyana Times newspaper

Former President Bharrat Jagdeo

Saturday February 16, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Protest of Marriot Hotel construction continues

Govt. fueling unemployment among youths - YCT Government is playing a major role in compounding unemployment among young people with the outsourcing of work on home territory, says Jermaine Grant, President of Youth Coalition for Transformation.

Grant expressed that notion yesterday as he protested the exclusion of Guyanese labourers and the use of only Chinese nationals in the construction phase of the US$60M Marriott Hotel being funded by Guyanese taxpayers. The protest was held in front the Marriott Hotel construction site, Kingston.

Shanghai Construction Group was awarded the contract to construct the Marriott Hotel in Guyana.

Winston Brassington, Chief Executive Officer of Atlantic Hotel Inc. (AHI) claimed that Government got a reduction of US$9 million in the bid price

by Shanghai Construction Group under the condition that it could have control over whom it hires.

Brassington had said that the use of a mostly Chinese labour force to construct the hotel was just one of several conditionalities necessary for the facility’s efficient and speedy construction.

The official also said that the issue of productivity and communication had been a cause for concern along with the lack of specialized skills needed for the tasks.

Protestors outside Marriott Hotel Construction site

According to Grant, developing countries like Guyana need foreign investments for job creation and this “anti-Guyana” move

by Government has set a bad precedent. He said that Government is signaling to foreign investors that they could ignore locals and import labourers.

He noted that the defense given by the Labour Minister, Nanda Gopaul that Guyanese labourers are not knowledgeable of the technology being used by the contractor, is inexcusable. He said that the construction of this hotel was in the pipeline for years, giving Government enough time to update the curricula of the Faculty of Technology of the University

of Guyana and technical training institutions.

Grant stated that the inadequacies of Guyana’s technical education should be addressed immediately to meet the demands of a technologically advanced world. He said that Guyana may soon have an oil industry and courses should be offered to meet the needs of that industry.

He added that it would be unfortunate if foreign nationals would have to come to Guyana and work on the oil rigs because Guyanese are not knowledgeable in that field.

Alliance For Change executive member, Nigel Hughes, also emphasized the need for training. He said that

Bully reportedly pushes boy, 8, down stairs, victim dies …attack follows child’s purchase of rose for his mother

By Romila Boodram An eight-year-old St. Margaret’s Primary School student died around 01:00am yesterday, hours after he was reportedly pushed off the school’s step by a student of the said school.

Dead is Joshua Hubbard of Kitty, Georgetown.

According to reports, the child who on several occasions allegedly complained to his teacher about a “bully” who is after him, purchased a rose on Thursday to give his mother for her Valentine’s Day but was confronted at school by the older student who demanded the rose.

When little Hubbard refused to give his rose to the other student, “he push he (Joshua) down the step and Joshua landed on his back but nothing didn’t happen to him at the set time, it was till in the night he take in,” a relative said.

Joshua Hubbard Yesterday, when Kaieteur News visited the child’s home, his mother, Roxanne Hubbard, was heartbroken.

She recalled that her son

came home from school on Thursday and told her that another pupil had pushed him down the step. “I didn’t take it serious because he did not complain for any pain. When he came home he was playing in the yard as usual.”

“He bathe and brush he teeth and went to bed but he was tossing, tossing so I pray for him and he come back normal then a little after he start crying out for pain, it was the first time I hear my son cry out like that so he father carry he to the hospital,” Roxanne Hubbard lamented.

At the hospital, the family was informed that the eightyear-old was bleeding in his head.

He eventually succumbed minutes after.

The family who is now highly upset claimed that the headmistress refused to tell them who was the child who pushed little Joshua off the steps and eventually caused his demise. They claimed that the eight-year-old made several complaints to the teacher who did nothing.

efforts should be made to train citizens so that they could benefit from projects being executed locally.

Hughes believes that the Trade Unions have to lead this protest since it is more of a national issue than a political one. He said that the persons who signed the contracts agreeing to the exclusion of Guyanese should do the honourable thing and pack their bags and leave.

Social activist, Frederick Kissoon, who led the protestors in chants “No

Guyanese…No Chinese”, “Guyana belongs to Guyanese”, “No Guyanese…No Marriott” said that he had predicted that once a dictatorship is allowed to take excesses, it goes into bizarre directions.

He said that it is bizarre that a sovereign State contracts a company that does not hire locals. Kissoon, a former lecturer at the University of Guyana, said that the disintegration of communism led to nationalist movements around the

world. He is convinced that no other sovereign nation would see the exclusion of its citizens from a local project.

Kissoon said that if Guyanese could allow this atrocity then Guyanese would allow anything. He believes that this is the time for A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change, the two Opposition parties in the National Assembly that hold a oneseat majority to confront the government and set things right for Guyanese.

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Kaieteur News

Kaieteur News Printed and Published by National Media & Publishing Company Ltd. 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown, Georgetown, Guyana.

Publisher: GLENN LALL Editor: Adam Harris Tel: 225-8465, 225-8491. Fax: 225-8473, 226-8210

Letters... Where your views make the news Letters...

The human machine will inevitably ground to a halt DEAR EDITOR,

EDITORIAL

Stumbling from crisis to crisis The government seems to be stumbling from one controversy to the other with scarcely a break between episodes. Something like this could only happen if the advisers are people who function as though they are in total control of the minds of the people and therefore any decision they take will either find favour by the people or would simply see them reduced to an apathetic mass.

Surely no one who advises the government could make so many mistakes. Worse since there are many problematic areas, there must be many advisers and all of them are leading the government down the so-called garden path.

We start with the Marriott hotel issue and the nonemployment of Guyanese. We have on many occasions stated that this state of affairs should not have existed.

Recently, the government spokesman in the person of Dr. Roger Luncheon said that the non-employment of Guyanese was never an issue when the contract was signed.

It must have caught the attention of the people in the Ministry of Home Affairs when the applications for work permits were submitted. From comments made by Dr. Luncheon the government was made aware of the intention of the contractor, Shanghai Construction Group, when it saw the recruitment trends.

To contend that a contractor is entitled to recruit the labour force with which he is familiar does not hold water once an international force is involved. This would happen in no other country, not even the poorest country in the world. In fact, the poor country would have injected a training clause in its contracts.

The arrogance of some people and the race by others to justify this abomination is astounding. The Minister of Labour seeks to justify it by contending that Guyana does not have the requisite skills to work in the construction of the hotel. He is saying that Guyanese cannot even prepare a mixture of cement, sand and stone needed for the columns and walls and the floor. The worst bit of bovine scatology comes from Winston Brassington. He sees nothing wrong with the non-employment on a large Guyanese project. Dr. Luncheon has said that a similar situation would not exist when works begin at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport.

This is because there would have to be the movement of large quantities of sand and other building material. Of course, Dr Luncheon quipped that he could not see the Chinese moving such material. Well the same thing needs to be done at the Marriott construction site. There is need for sand and stone and cement to be moved. Brassington, however, speaks for the Chinese contractor. He claims that they feel comfortable working with their own. To hire Guyanese, according to Brassington, would slow down the project. The various sections of the society are now addressing this issue and unless somebody in the government lacks shame, or perhaps feel that people would only protest for a while, the situation should be resolved.

The other unnecessary disturbance in the society surrounds the granting of a television broadcast licence to the Chinese Government. The justification seems to be that about a dozen countries have granted a television broadcast licence to a foreign government. And in each case the foreign government is the Chinese government.

There are Guyanese who want a television broadcast licence but they cannot get on and some will never get because as the officials say, there is limited spectrum. If the spectrum is a scarce resource then surely the government should know that it cannot afford to dispose of a bandwidth to a foreigner ahead of its own people.

We hear that the allocation of this television channel was something that was agreed on more than a decade ago.

Well even back then the government must have recognized that there were Guyanese seeking the right to broadcast. It already had the applications.

The only governments that would go such a route as the Guyana Government did would be a government chasing money at all costs, one in which some of the officials in the talks would have taken some brazen offer; or a government that simply does not care about its people. And the advisers should be the ones to blame, unless then President Bharrat Jagdeo refused to heed the words of those who had his ear.

Saturday February 16, 2013

There comes a time in the life of every individual when, despite the best willpower one could possibly muster, the human machine will inevitably ground to a halt.

This is why it is important for every individual to come to terms with some basic facts of life, namely that nothing lasts forever and as the saying goes, ‘all good things must come to an end’.

These thoughts dawned upon me as I read the news of the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI who became the first Pope to tender his resignation since Pope Gregory XII resigned as Pope, way back in 1415. This incidentally predated the discovery by Columbus of the West Indies, something that is still the subject of much controversy among historians. This obviously came as a surprise to Catholics throughout the globe, especially since there were no manifest indications that Pope Benedict was experiencing ill health or fatigue on the job.

It is now revealed that Pope Benedict had been advised by his doctor against going on long trips and that the Pope had in fact been considering stepping down for months. His brother, Georg Ratzinger was quoted by the BBC as saying: “ When he got to the second half of his 80s, he felt that his age was showing and that he was gradually losing his abilities he may have had and that it

takes to fulfill this office properly,”. According to him, the resignation was therefore part of a ‘natural process’.

The Pope made history for being the oldest pope at the time of his election at age 78, quite an advanced age to carry the enormous responsibility as head of the Catholic Church which at the time was rocked by allegations of child sex abuse

by Catholic priests.

There is nothing wrong in someone acknowledging his or her physical limitations, regardless of position or status. The Pope in a statement admitted that “after repeatedly examining my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.”

This is a highly commendable stance taken by the Pope, one that won him admiration not only from Catholics, but from a wide cross-section of the global population. This resignation paves the way for the election of a new and hopefully younger and more energetic Pope. The election process which is likely to commence soon is quite interesting and does not allow for any prolonged gridlock, since a decision one way or the other must be made within the hallowed chambers of the Vatican.

The Pope has joined a long list of persons who have opted to retire before the expiration of their tenure due

to failing health. Among some of the great names are Nelson Mandela, Fidel Castro and our own Janet Jagan. One fundamental lesson in life is that no one is indispensable and the sooner we come to terms with this reality, the better for us all, both as individuals and as national leaders. Fidel Castro, the great Cuban revolutionary admitted to his disabilities during a recent interview with journalists when he said that his ‘shattered knee and weak eyesight has taken its toll’.

Despite his advancing age and failing sight, the 86-yearold praised election officials for building a new entrance to his polling site, thereby eliminating the need for him to climb stairs, thus facilitating him to cast his ballot. He continued to share his thoughts on fundamental issues confronting mankind in his now popular “Reflections” columns published in the Cuban Granma. Age ought not to be a barrier to participating in public life, so long as health and intellect can so permit.

Cheddi and Janet Jagan are two of the finest examples of this philosophy of service, both having worked up to the very last days of their lives, and between the two of them, contributed in excess of one hundred years of dedicated service to the Guyanese people. This is a true example of public service of an exceptionally high standard which others could do well to emulate. The new Pope, when elected, would have

quite a number of challenges to address, including the whole question of Catholic conservatism which some feel is somewhat anachronistic and out of touch with modern thinking.

One such issue has to do with family planning and the use of contraceptives which runs counter to Catholic orthodoxy. The use of condoms, which is perhaps the most common form of birth control, especially among the younger segment of the population, is now widely recommended by health advocates as one of the safest and most effective ways of safeguarding against sexually transmitted diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, which is responsible for the premature deaths of millions throughout the world.

Thankfully, with the introduction of anti-retroviral drugs and robust preventative measures including voluntary counseling and testing measures conducted by the health authorities here in Guyana and elsewhere, it is now possible to have early detection and treatment of the virus, resulting in a significant decline in the incidence of HIV/AIDS cases. The National Aids Secretariat and other related stakeholders must be commended for the good work they have been doing not only in arresting, but more importantly reversing the incidence of this dreaded killer.

Hydar Ally

Saturday February 16, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Letters... Where your views make the news Letters... Where your views make the news

What exactly is President Ramotar’s stance on these nationally embarrassing hot button issues?

DEAR EDITOR, A Guyanese friend of mine in New York asked me Thursday what I thought of the unfolding events in Guyana, viz a viz, the role of t h e C h i n e s e i n the Marriott and the CCTV national embarrassments, and I responded with a question of my own: What does President Donald Ramotar think? After all, these developments may have had their genesis in the Jagdeo era, but the embarrassing revelations are taking place on his watch.

I really don’t know what other people knew of President Ramotar to even think, long before he became President, that he would make a difference on s u c c e e d i n g Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo, but I was skeptical because I believe that a potential President is supposed to either have an impressive resume (like Democrat Bill Clinton, whose work as Governor of Arkansas with then Republican President Ronald Reagan on welfare reform was publicly recognized by then Republicans) or at least be a charismatic visionary (like Democrat Barack Obama, who, despite lack of a deep resume, won the support of the majority of Americans twice with his strong vision for a better America and

efforts to this end).

President Ramotar was and still is ‘0 for 2’ in this regard.

And nowhere were his paucities more pronounced than as the r u l i n g p a r t y ’s c h i e f representative on the stateowned GuySuCo board, as the corporation hemorrhaged billions due to mismanagement and industrial strike action called by his party’s union, GAWU, and as PPP General Secretary/ Leader, when he oversaw his party’s loss of parliamentary majority for the first time in 2011.

Absent his leadership skills and charisma, therefore, one would have thought that he would at least surround himself with proven professional advisers and cabinet appointees that can fill the substantial gap.

Instead, he opted to retain the advisers who were enablers of the Jagdeo era corruption and to go with an all-PPP cabinet.

In other words, he was not going to be the change candidate many thought or hoped for.

This explains why, after the Linden massacre of July 18, 2012, as his first major test as President, he appeared to have left most of the decisionmaking to his advisers, who doubled as spokespersons.

And if he appeared detached and distant then, then guess what?

Nothing has changed in the wake of the Marriott and CCTV scandals now blowing up in his face.

Ever since the angle on the absence of Guyanese workers on the Marriott project broke, we have heard from Head of the Privatization Unit/ CEO of NICIL and AHI, Mr. Winston Brassington a n d L a b o u r Minister, Dr. Nanda Gopaul.

This ongoing story is a national embarrassment, if not a violation of the constitution that entitles Guyanese the right to work, but especially on a project funded

by Guyanese taxpayers, yet the President of Guyana is missing in action; pretty much like he was on the GuySuCo board and at the helm of the PPP in 2011.

But, as if that story was not enough to get Guyanese all riled up, another story involving the Chinese broke, with the revelation that the PPP regime had granted the Chinese regime the right to broadcast, with licence approved and frequency identified, which many are arguing is unheard of in any other country.

And while the granting of the broadcast right, along with the Marriott deal, was done prior to P r e s i d e n t R a m o t a r ’s accession to office, the fact is that these revelations are

Those massive public projects A national tragedy and disgrace DEAR EDITOR, We want to let the readers know that this is the second letter which originated from a classified conversation that Bharrat Jagdeo had with the U.S. Ambassador, His Excellency Mr. Robinson on October 2, 2006, that was leaked by Wikileaks; where he promised major changes in his second term.

In that conversation with the US Ambassador, Jagdeo claimed that combating chronic physical insecurity of the people is the biggest impediment to new investments in Guyana. Yet from 2006 to now, neither Jagdeo nor his sidekick now in the Office of the President has done much by way of sound public policy to enhance the competitiveness of the business community.

What did happen since then was that corruption was facilitated at an exponential rate by the political rulers on a grand scale. The public projects became larger both

in size and complexity under the disguise that they are transformational projects, but with a real intent of being the funnel to leak state resources away from the Treasury into the pockets of greedy politicians and their business partners.

But the empirical evidence as uncovered by Tanzi et al from the World Bank is that grand projects similar to the likes of the Marriott Project, the Airport expansion Project and the Skeldon Factory, if implemented just to facilitate corruption, will result in a decline in the “productivity” on those projects and by extension, in the nation. This translates to a direct negative impact on the “rate of economic growth” which results in the poor getting poorer and the rich getting richer.

To date, the PPP regime has not fulfilled any of these projects to the benefit of the poor and the working class.

What has happened since 2006 is that the Jagdeo/

Ramotar cabal has spent almost G$100 billion on six or seven projects, all either severely underperforming (as in the case of the Skeldon Sugar Factory) or collapsed (as in the case of the Amaila Falls Road) or just completely failed to date, as in the case of the $13 billion ICT project.

So today Guyana is saddled with the highest external debt ever in its history. This is a national tragedy and disgrace. We have discovered that nothing in those so-called mega contracts would help the poor to climb out of their poverty.

Let it be told, as Moses Nagamootoo highlighted, that the future of the Guyanese children is now pawned for a very high price.

Had the Guyanese people recognized these greedy wolves in sheep’s clothing earlier, they would have saved their children and by extension, saved Guyana from billions of dollars in debt.

Dr Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh

happening on his watch, and instead of taking a leadership stance on this issue, he has left it to head of the Guyana National Broadcasting Authority (GNBA), Bibi Shadick, to go public and state that she has no records of the Chineseowned television station being given permission to operate here.

The only reason why she did that was because she is an attorney and she knows that there is a law that requires everyone, including the PPP regime, to adhere to when applying for a broadcast licence.

But Head of the Presidential Secretariat , Dr. Roger Luncheon, who is not an attorney but the principal spokesman for the regime, ill-advisedly stuck his foot in his mouth when he reportedly declared that the PPP regime “has executive authority to bypass the broadcasting laws and order the allocation of a frequency to any foreign government with which it has

sealed an agreement to establish a station here,” (“Gov’t doesn’t need to apply for frequency for foreign State broadcasters,” Demwaves.com, Thursday, February 14).

That glaring contradiction of the law simply cannot be ignored, because it speaks of both the lack of leadership at the highest level (the presidency) and the ruling party’s penchant for law-breaking with impunity.

Clearly, if the executive has the authority today to break the Broadcast Law, then what is to stop it from citing executive authority tomorrow to break any other law?

Is this not how dictators reason?

In fact, given that the Chinese government is run by communist dictators who thrive in secrecy (lack of accountability or transparency) and these are the type people the PPP regime is dealing with in various areas of Guyanese life and livelihood, why shouldn’t we

readily conclude that the PPP and its regime are on a determined push, with the help of their Chinese counterparts, to usher in an era of PPP dictatorship?

Is this really what Guyanese voters voted for when they voted for the PPP in 2011 to run the government?

Or is the PPP capitalizing on the loyalty of its support base to run roughshod over the country and entrench itself as a corrupt, lawless, discriminatory (even in the case of Chinese over Guyanese), vindictive and dictatorial regime?

What exactly is President Ramotar’s stance on these nationally embarrassing hot button issues that cry out for acceptable explanations from concerned, strong and decisive leadership at the presidential level?

Is it a case that he does not care or is it a case that he does not know what to do?

Emile Mervin

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Kaieteur News

Saturday February 16, 2013

Letters... Where your views make the news Letters... Where your views make the news

We must not be fooled by deceitful arguments and misapplied statistics DEAR EDITOR, After the minority PPP government was recently condemned in the media for being grossly irresponsible and incompetent in its management of our nation’s national debt, Finance Minister Ashni Singh responded by issuing a statistics-laden statement that praised the minority government for its performance since it regained power in 1992.

And as is the wont of the PPP, Mr. Singh compared every piece of statistic from the base year 1992, when the PPP replaced the PNC, with similar statistics from 2012.

But Mr. Singh’s attempt to defend the PPP failed the minute he made the ludicrous and self-serving claim that it is misleading to denominate Guyana’s national debt in Guyana dollars. And though he argued to the wind that Guyana’s debt can only be properly contextualized and understood when denominated in United States dollars, he never revealed the real reason for his belief.

Here is the reason. When the PNC left office in 1992, our currency was much stronger than it is today: one US dollar was worth one hundred and twenty-six (126) Guyana dollars; today it is worth around two hundred six Guyana dollars. This means that our smaller 1992 debt

denominated in US dollars would be larger than our larger 2012 debt denominated in US dollars.

Thus the PNC’s 1992 debt of GY$265 billion will show as US$2.1 billion when converted, but the PPP’s larger 2012 debt of GY$350 billion will show as $US 1.7 billion when converted, 19% less than the PNC debt.

H o w e v e r, rightly showing our debt in Guyana dollars will highlight the fact that the PPP’s debt is 32% higher than the debt left by the PNC, resulting in the questions about the PPP’s competence and causing Mr. Singh’s fixation on denominating our debt only in US dollars.

Because 75% of the PNC debt has been written-off due to our nation’s poor and beggarly status, coupled with the possibility that our government has undisclosed commitments, many informed observers believe that the PPP has already borrowed much more than the PNC did.

However, at current exchange rates, our national debt will have to reach GY$433 billion before it, in equivalent US$, exceeds the GY$ 265 billion the PNC left in 1992. So I urge our nation to keep an eye and ear out for that GY$433 billion number. Mr. Singh’s

attempt to engage in selfserving arguments about the currency in which our debt should be denominated is akin to trying to convince someone that there is a weight difference between a bag that weighs 18 kilos and one that weighs 40 pounds.

But as the PPP discovered during the last elections, such subterfuge can’t work anymore.

Guyanese understand that a debt burden is a debt burden, no matter in what currency it is conveniently denominated.

Guyanese should also not fall into any delusion that Guyana can repay its debt because it has “higher wealth and income levels” than in 1992 due to “better” economic times.

We should be wary of thinking that Guyana is on sound economic footing, because the IMF and World Bank are uncritical of statistics provided to them by our government, or because of widespread availability of cheap goods from China, or because of high prices for our gold, or because of increased remittances from the many Guyanese who were allegedly driven abroad by Forbes Burnham’s policies (Burnham’s exports), or because of cheap oil on concessionary terms from Venezuela, or because of the almost-free labour of Cuban doctors, or because of the construction of buildings and

other infrastructure by money sourced from grants and loans from foreign countries and the illegal drug trade. Our government only earned about US$50 million in taxes and royalties from the almost US$700 million in gold our nation produced in 2012, lacks the will to force the few rich folks to pay their fair share of taxes, and can only squeeze so much in VAT from the poor and barely-surviving remainder of the population.

So we must not be fooled by deceitful arguments and misapplied statistics.

But a few more observations about the comparative statistics, denominated in US dollars that Mr. Singh released in his statement aimed at defending the minority government against charges of incompetence.

He raved about gross domestic product ($371 million in 1992 vs. $2.8 billion in 2012); central government’s revenue ($141 million in 1992 vs. $637 million in 2012); exports ($382 million in 1992 vs. $1.4 billion in 2012); and foreign exchange reserves ($191 million in 1992 vs. $872 million in 2012).

Well, just as Mr. Singh has chosen to use the wellrespected US$ to argue his case for PPP competence, I will use the cost of a barrel of oil, in US$, to argue that the PPP’s performance is not as

impressive as it seems. I am going with the price of oil, because no nation can survive without it. I am also taking this approach because of a cautionary warning that Cheddi Jagan issued at GIMPEX during an open meeting I was invited to by a friend.

Mr. Jagan said that he had to remind some rice farmers not to get too excited over any price increases they received for a bag of rice or paddy. He said that he told them that the true value of any increase can only be determined after they calculated how many bags of rice or paddy they needed to sell to buy the tractor or combine they needed to plough their rice fields.

If in spite of the price increases they had to sell a lot more bags of rice or paddy than they previously did to buy the last tractor, then there was really no need to get excited. It seems as though he never told this story to the present bunch in Freedom House or maybe they just forgot or are, just as I suspect, playing politics with statistics.

In 1992, a barrel of oil averaged about US$19 while it averaged about US$91 in 2012. So let’s see how many barrels of oil our nation could have purchased using its GDP, foreign exchange reserves, central government revenue and exports of 1992

and 2012. Our 1992 GDP would have gotten us 19.5 million barrels of oil, while our 2012 GDP would have gotten us 30.7 million barrels of oil (57% more than in 1992).

Our 1992 foreign exchange reserves would have gotten us 10 million barrels of oil, while our 2012 reserves would have gotten us 9.5 million barrels of oil (about 5% less than in 1992); our 1992 central government revenue would have gotten us 7.4 million barrels of oil, while our 2012 central government revenue would have gotten us 7 million barrels of oil (about 5% less than in 1992); and our 1992 exports would have gotten us 20.1 million barrels of oil, while our 2012 exports would have gotten us 15.3 million barrels of oil (about 24% less than in 1992).

These findings remind me of the uninformed youngsters who boast of their tens of thousands of US or Guyana dollars that can barely buy as much as twenty thousand US or Guyana dollars did in 1992.

So while our GDP and our per capita GDP have increased due to increases in the prices of our exports since 1992, the disproportionate increases in the cost of living have all but wiped out most meaningful economic reasons to compare our current economy to the one in 1992.

Lionel Lowe

Saturday February 16, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Kaieteur News

Saturday February 16, 2013

Health centres commissioned at Port Mourant, Angoy’s Avenue

By Leon Suseran “The time is now where we have to make sure we minimize our mistakes!” This call was made by Region Six Chairman, David Armogan, speaking specifically about the health sector in that region, whose service delivery has come under heavy criticism over the past weeks.

He was speaking at the commissioning of two new health centres in Berbice, the $9.2M Port Mourant and $5.8M Angoy’s Avenue Health Centres were commissioned by both himself and the Chief Executive Officer of the Berbice Regional Health Authority, Dr. Vishwa Mahadeo, MP. A brand-new building was erected at Port Mourant, while extensive modifications were made to an already existing building in Angoy’s Avenue for a health centre there.

Mr. Armogan urged the health care officials in the region to operate at a level of efficiency which is acceptable to the community that we are serving. He stated that a lot of the problem has to do with attitudes and behaviour, and not competence.

“In a few instances, there may be problems with competence, but most of the times, when you find out about people’s dissatisfaction, it has to do with the attitude of our medical personnel, with the way they talk to people, accommodate people, and treat people.

“Unless we change this, and unless some of those people who continue to give the system a bad name, can change their attitude, then we will always be in the media— in the spotlight, and that is why the Minister [of Health] has to go to parliament and answer these questions because of the mistakes that our own people make”.

“We can build all the beautiful health buildings in the world, but what matters at the end of the day, is the level of healthcare that we deliver to the people, who are the recipients of all these

things we are doing…we [must[ up the bar and delivery a higher and higher care everyday!”

He did say that a lot of those mistakes are “avoidable”—very simple things can be done, but “we tend to overlook these simple things, and as a result, create big problems in the sector”.

Health mistakes, he posited, cannot be corrected, unlike engineer and other occupational mistakes. “In the health sector, we bury our mistakes, so we cannot make too many mistakes there—it’s a sector that always has to be on the ball and has to be efficient and effective”.

Inasmuch as there are bad comments, he did say that he has heard numerous positive comments about the sector, since the tendency for the bad comments are usually highlighted in the media.

“People got the right to report us when we don’t make them comfortable and happy”, he noted. And people always expect better and the highest performances from the healthcare officials.

“This is the nature of the job you have taken on. Once you come into the health sector, there will always be problems”. Armogan noted, too, that there is no “perfect health system in the world, whether you go to India, Japan, America, Norway—to wherever—there will always be problems in the health sector, because you cannot make everybody feel good.”

He urged the healthcare officials present at the two commissioning to try their best. “In these trying times and difficult circumstances, I still expect that you will try your best and make sure that every day you come to work ,you give 100 per cent of your energy and your time to make the health sector a better place for all.”

The Port Mourant Health Centre will be serving a very large catchment area on the Lower Corentyne and will provide a quantity of primary healthcare services. Last year, that health centre won the Best Health Centre prize during the Berbice awards

Composite photo showing the two ribbon- cutting ceremonies of the Port Mourant (L) and Angoy’s Avenue Health centres

Port Mourant Health Centre ceremony. The facility, like other primary healthcare facilities, is governed by a Management Committee.

Additionally, those in charge of the health centres were challenged by the authorities to start-up kitchen gardens, wherby healthy foods that can aid in the fight of chronic diseases, can be grown, as living examples to persons who will visit those centres, to educate them. The call was

made again for members of the public to first visit the health centres for medical treatment, especially for minor matters, and not overcrowd the public hospital facilities.

And a few miles away at Angoy’s Avenue, the residents there, for the first time in many years, now have their own health centre. That is another large catchment area. The centre will serve an average of 1,500 persons

together with the N/A Family Health Centre in the town proper. The centre was finished about a year ago, but was not commissioned because the building was vandalized some time last year.

The exterior of the building was vandalized.

Guttering, plumbing and electrical installations were removed. Angoy’s Avenue, a ‘hot- spot’ for crime, is a

squatting area which has not been regularized to this day due to a pending motion by the New Haven Co-op Society, along with a tug-ofwar with the Government.

The catchment area for the health centre includes Queenstown and Angoy’s Avenue. Services will include pre and post-natal care; infant and pre-school care, family planning, home visits for defaulters, and blood works.

Saturday February 16, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 9

THE RIGHT TO WORK IS NOT JUSTICIABLE The new political dispensation that followed the outcome of the general and regional elections of 2011 has kept the courts very busy.

A number of constitutional matters have been filed challenging the actions of the parliament and the actions of the government.

This trend seems likely to continue with the announcement by the Guyana Trade Union Congress (GTUC) that it intends to challenge the decision by the government to allow employment flexibilities to the Chinese firm that is building the Marriott Hotel in Georgetown.

The umbrella body for trade unions in Guyana is contending that these flexibilities deny Guyanese the right to work. This newspaper reported that no Guyanese workers were employed in actual construction work at the site; the constructions workers are all from China.

The GTUC indicated that it will be filing a constitutional action against the government because the actions of the government amounts to a denial of the right to work for Guyanese and the right to work is a right guaranteed under the constitution.

The Guyana Trade Union Congress should not waste its time and the courts’ time

by filing such an action. The courts already have too much on their hands and any constitutional motion premised on the enforceability of the right to work will be dismissed at the preliminary stages.

The right to work is a right under our constitution. But it is not a justiciable right. In short, it cannot be legitimately adjudicated by the courts.

The right to work forms part of a section of the constitution that deals with the Principles and Bases of the Political and Economic system. Most constitutions have such sections that speak to the ideals of the State; things that the nation should aspire towards. At one stage, the constitution of Guyana noted that Guyana was in a stage of transition to cooperative socialism.

If that provision was justiciable, it would mean that the economic policies being pursued over the past fifteen years would have been subject to challenge.

The right to work forms part of a body of rights known as social and economic rights. Social and economic rights are in the main nonjusticiable. These rights cannot be legally defined; they are vague and they are ideological not legal in content. As such they are not justiciable.

Dem boys seh...

Delta setting distance from Guyana and Jagdeo When dem boys talk that Jagdeo get search de other day and de people find condoms, dem didn’t know that he get suh vex that he attack Delta. Since 9-11 dem airline ain’t tekking no chance; dem would search even dem own grandmother but then again, Jagdeo ain’t nobody grandmother.

When de Customs official at JFK decide to search he hand luggage Jagdeo get vex. He accustom to travel free like if is he own house door he walking through. He ask de man if that is how dem does treat past president. De man refuse to answer he.

He raise he voice pun de man and is then dem boys hear de man tell he fuh shut he mouth and stand up straight. “You was a president in a banana republic and don’t talk up here.”

Dem Guyanese who been in de vicinity get vex because dem don’t like people handle dem own but is when Jagdeo announce that he gun deal wid de airline that people back off.

Well Delta announce that it pulling out. But then again, dem boys believe that Delta was playing dead fuh see wha funeral it gun get. Anyhow, de airline serious. De Americans tell de airline that Jagdeo vex and he can hurt de airline.

He was de man who always ending up wid crooked people and one of dem Ed Ah Mad actually mek he get search because Ed boast how Jagdeo was he friend. De Americans had dem hand pun Ed and dem decide fuh keep a close eye pun all he friends.

Then there was Sonny. Same thing. Sonny come and Guyana welcome he wid open arms. De Feds lock dem arms round he and to this day he can’t even sleep in he own bed.

Now dem got Naresh. He get nuff big position in Guyana and he even get nuff money fuh Guyana. Now he mek de news fuh all de wrang reason. Now dem boys seh that de Canadians cover down he faults but he get like a bubble. He had to rise to de surface and he want tun Deputy in Caricom.

Well de story come out and dem boys waiting fuh see wha job he gun get when he come back to Guyana.

Talk half and don’t search Jagdeo again.

The courts are precluded from adjudicating on these rights because they relate to policy and not law. These rights are the concern of parliament and the executive not the courts.

The right to work is not a legal right. It is a political concept and is unenforceable. It is still a constitutional right because the socialists that were involved in the constitutional reform process were too ashamed to delete it for fear that it would signal and antilabour posture.

The constitution of Guyana itself does not make the social and economic

rights contained therein justiciable. It does not order that these rights be enforceable by the courts.

Article 39 (1) simply urges that the various arms of the State, including the government, the parliament and the judiciary and all public agencies be “guided” by these principles.

Further confirming the non-justiciable status of these rights, the constitution notes that parliament may provide for them to be enforceable in any court or tribunal. Parliament has not so far done so and is not likely to ever do so. The GTUC therefore has little chance of

its constitutional challenge being successful. Even if the courts rule that the right to work is justiciable, the fact that the government has allowed the Chinese firm certain flexibilities does not expressly constitute a denial of the right to work.

Giving the Chinese an option to employ their own labour is not the same as saying they should use this flexibility to deny Guyanese the opportunity to work; it simply gives them the option of employing their own.

The problem has to be resolved by bringing the parties, the contractor, Government and the labour

movement to the negotiating table. What is needed is a commitment from the Chinese that notwithstanding them having the right to employ whomever they feel fit to employ that they will utilize Guyanese workers in this project. This is a matter for political negotiations; not the courts.

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Kaieteur News

Immigration INFOT Immigration News For Our Community Through this “Question & Answer” column, our goal is to answer your immigration questions. We appreciate your comments and questions. If you have a question that you would like answered in this column, please email: Gail@GailLaw.com.

Question #1: Is it illegal for me to take my daughter to a public school in New York City for a period of four months while both of us are on B1/B2 visas?

Answer #1: In 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court in Plyler vs. Doe, recognizes “the right of all children, regardless of immigration status, to attend public school as long as they [have] met the age and residency requirements set by state law.” In May 2011, the US Departments of Justic e a n d E d u c a t i o n issued a memorandum i n f o r m i n g t h e n a t i o n ’s school districts that it is against the law for school officials to request documents or other information that might reveal the immigration status of students enrolling in public schools.

So, the public school (grades 1-12) cannot ask about your child’s immigration status when you enroll her in school in New York. However, if the Immigration officer finds out

that she will be attending school or has attended school in the U.S., they can deny her admission, revoke the B-1/B-2 visa and require she apply for a student visa (F-1).

Question #2: I was adopted by my aunt but the immigration papers she filed never got approved. Can my biological parents, who are now U.S. citizens file for me?

Answer #2: Unfortunately, once you are adopted, it severs the legal relationship between you and your biological parents for immigration purposes. So, only your adoptive mother, father or siblings can file a sponsorship petition for you.

Question #3: I received my U.S. citizenship in 1972 but got convicted of two misdemeanors (domestic violence and shoplifting) in 1998. I’m scared because Immigration is more aggressive in deporting people from the U.S. Can I be deported or removed from the U.S.?

Answer #3: As a U.S. citizenship (by birth or naturalized), you cannot be deported for crimes committed AFTER you became a U.S. citizen.

However, if you committed fraud in obtaining your U.S. citizenship then you can be denaturalized (very difficult for the government to prove).

If denaturalized then deportation/removal is possible.

Question #4: I entered the U.S. with a visitor visa and Form I-94. I am now married to a U.S. citizen, but lost my Form I-94. Can my husband still petition for me?

Answer #4: Yes, to be eligible for adjustment of status in the U.S., you must prove lawful admission. So, you will have to apply to get a replacement Form I-94 before your husband can file for you. Once you obtain the duplicate I-94 then your husband can petition for you to be a lawful permanent resident in the U.S. Contact our office for assistance in applying for a duplicate Form I-94.

The family of a woman, said to be in her 60s, is making her funeral arrangements after she succumbed at a City Hospital.

The woman, Volda Sancharie, formerly of Bush Lot, Back Street, on the Essequibo Coast, alleged

died some time Wednesday, after she was transported to a City Hospital for medical attention.

A close relative explained that his grandmother, who, after finished preparing a meal on Wednesday was about to remove the stew pot when she

experienced a dizziness and fell. During the fall she pulled both the stove and pot to the ground on herself.

Sancharie sustained burns to her chest and hands.

She was subsequently taken to a City Hospital where she died.

Saturday February 16, 2013

Brooklyn-based Guyanese drug informant gunned down

Attorney Gail S. Seeram

Pensioner dies after lighted stove falls on her

Burton Dennison was shot to death in this car in Brooklyn.

An informant, born in Guyana and aiding the feds in a New York drug probe, was gunned down after he left a nightclub in Brooklyn last month, the New York Post has learned.

The murder appeared to be a professional hit, lawenforcement sources said — and the killing could hamper efforts to convince others to become Government cooperators.

Burton Dennison, 44, said to hail from Den Amstel, West Coast Demerara, who was gunned down in his Mercedes in East Flatbush, was helping agents on Long Island on “multiple cases” in exchange for reduced jail time on drug charges, said a source familiar with the investigation.

“He was cooperating not only in the case he was arrested on, but also proactively assisting the DEA to ensnare others dealing drugs,” the source said.

“Certainly, any cooperator will have this in their mind when it comes to their decision whether or not to work for ‘Club Fed,’ “ another source said.

And a veteran prosecutor called the murder a “worstcase scenario, “noting that word of the killing would spread like ripples in a pond” and intimidate informants already wary of cooperating.

“From a lawenforcement perspective, it’s what keeps us up at night,” the source said.

“The best thing we can do is come back, full force, on whoever did it.”

Dennison, of Queens, who was married with six kids, was shot once in the head and once in the “lower extremity” on January 13 after leaving the club at 03:30hrs, according to documents and a source.

He was gunned down a few blocks away at East 46th Street and Glenwood Road.

He started working with the Feds when he was busted in September 2011 for selling a kilo of cocaine to an informant — who himself was angling for reduced jail time on drug and moneylaundering charges — according to court documents.

He gave up an alleged partner in the scheme when

he was arrested, and later agreed to work with the DEA on the Long Island drug cases, sources said. He did not enroll in the federal witness-protection programme.

Sources said investigators are probing whether the murder was revenge for his cooperation.

“Mr. Dennison pleaded guilty pursuant to a cooperation agreement, and following his guilty plea he continued to cooperate with the government,” his lawyer, Eric Franz, wrote to federal Judge John Gleeson.

“Unfortunately Mr. Dennison’s worst fears manifested themselves in his being gunned down and murdered.”

Dennison pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute drugs, and was set to be sentenced yesterday in Brooklyn federal court.

The killing of a cooperator in a federal case is unusual.

“It rarely happens,” said Steve Zissou, a defense attorney, even though “cooperating is a very dangerous game.”

Square of the Revolution targeted for clean-up today The Ghana Day Committee and friends, are set to launch the ‘Pick It Up’ campaign today at Square of the Revolution in Georgetown. Volunteers will clear the area of litter and landscape it in time for the hosting of events to mark the 250th anniversary of the 1763 Berbice Rebellion.

The milestone anniversary will be celebrated on February 23.

“It saddens me to see plastic bottles, food boxes and wrappers scattered around the Square. There is simply no excuse. We have decided to clean up the area, home of the 1763 Monument for the hosting of upcoming events in honour of our national hero, Cuffy, who led the 1763 Berbice Revolt and changed the course of history,” said Amanda Wilson, Co-ordinator of the

project. Many Guyanese use Square of the Revolution, from excited brides and grooms to driving instructors, pupils and families. “ I am calling on individuals, local groups and businesses to participate in this clean up exercise,” Wilson said Clean up starts from 7 a.m. sharp. The necessary tools and refreshments will be provided.

Saturday February 16, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 11

UG Bursar underscores importance of distance education Distance Education must be seen as an integral part of Guyana’s educational policy, progress and development, said Bursar of the University of Guyana, Mr. John Seeram, recently.

He was delivering the feature address to young graduates of the Institute of Distance and Continuing Education (IDCE) in New Amsterdam where he also called for the establishment of more IDCE centres across Berbice and the country as a whole.

“It [Distance Education] assumes added significance given the fact of our widely scattered coastal settlements and riverain and interior locations in this vast land of ours,” he stated.

Distance education or distance learning is a mode of delivering education and instruction, often on an individual basis, to students who are not physically present in a traditional setting such as a classroom. Distance learning provides access to learning when the source of information and the learners are separated by time and distance, or both.

In Guyana, IDCE, an extra-mural arm of the University of Guyana (UG) has established centres across Guyana, including New Amsterdam, Linden, Anna Regina, Lethem and Mabaruma in Region One and offers numerous educational [foundation] courses in various disciplines.

“The defining feature of distance learning is that the individual needs not actually attend university in person.”

Study at a distance suits people for a variety of

The graduating class of 2012- with lecturers and other officials of IDCE reasons. Seeram stated that it affords convenience for people with family commitments or with a job that requires regular travel or irregular working hours.

“Many business people have obtained academic and professional qualifications while keeping up to their demanding schedule of travel and work”. Mr. Seeram, the University’s Bursar, is also tasked with providing financial resources to IDCE and stated that he understands the need to promote distance education.

Additionally, he noted that the institute has been receiving more funds for its operations and the university has been receiving value for money spent at all of IDCE’s locations.

“It is now imperative that IDCE develops and strengthens its partnerships with the private sector and other individuals/ institutions both to meet its education

needs…” He urged the centre to solicit funding and other forms of donations for its development.

The time, he stated, has now come for IDCE to establish more locations in both Regions Five and Six. “We will now have to be looking at establishing centres at the UG Berbice Campus, at Corriverton and West Coast Berbice and Mahaicony.”

More space will be sought at both the Mahaicony and Corriverton Technical Institutes to house the new branches in the near future.

Resident tutor of IDCE New Amsterdam, Ms. Janice John, said that the centre “is celebrating another year of working with adults and out of school youth--our 32nd graduation exercise” She acknowledged that the past academic year although challenging was filled with many successes.

“Our student population

received a boost from the riverain areas mainly the Canje Creek and the Berbice River location. This year we recorded a 45 per cent increase in student registration from these areas.

“Our last academic year saw ten students registering for courses in Pre- University Mathematics and PreUniversity English from these two locations. Despite all of the difficulties experienced with transportation, these students are attending classes regularly”.

The Berbice centre, she

noted, registered 134 students, among them 19 men for the year under review.

Ninety eight students completed the various courses and are graduating today. Twenty one students, among them seven men, dropped out.

She bemoaned the paucity in the number of male registrants to the centre.

Blackouts severely hampered the classes during the past year. “Power outage was one of our main challenges. Very often this forced the cancellation of

class. Tutors were forced to find creative ways to ensure that the curriculum was adequately covered.

“Although this challenge is beyond our control, yet it still created a problem for the centre because of the time when our classes commence – that is, in the evening.”

Expanding the computer laboratory and adding more books to the library, and offering more technical courses to attract more males, are among the projections set for this year by IDCE New Amsterdam.

Page 12

Kaieteur News

Saturday February 16, 2013

Saturday February 16, 2013

Kaieteur News

Pensioner gets drunk to kill Tucville mechanic Tells arresting ranks, “when the rain finish then I going with yall’ Police have arrested a 70year old pensioner, who allegedly stabbed to death Winsel Roger Edwards, 33, of Lot 315 East Ruimvedlt Housing Scheme, yesterday.

Edwards a mechanic was knifed yesterday afternoon at Tucville, Squatting Area.

This newspaper was told that the incident happened shortly after 14:30 hrs yesterday, at a vulcanizing shop in the area.

One eyewitness told this newspaper that the suspect and Edwards had an earlier verbal altercation. “They were arguing earlier in de morning…but de suspect left afterwards,” the eyewitness told Kaieteur News.

According to the eyewitness, the suspect

returned and was sitting in the vulcanizing shop. Kaieteur News was further told that someone came into the shop and Edwards got up to assist that person.

It was then that the suspect walked up behind Edwards and stabbed him once to the chest.

The man collapsed and was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The suspect after knifing Edwards, made no attempt to leave the scene.

He sat comfortably and waited for law enforcement officers.

The officers had a task taking the man into custody since he was intoxicated.

“I ain’t going in de rain..”

Dead :Roger Edwards the suspect said as police tried to get him away from the scene. Relatives yesterday described Edwards as a very jovial person.

He leaves to mourn his mother and four siblings among other relatives.

The elderly man being arrested yesterday by police

Page 13

Death of 11 passengers at Mazaruni…

MARAD recommends multiple charges for captains, crewmen

By Michael Jordan The two boat captains involved in last month’s Mazaruni accident which claimed eleven lives broke several maritime laws, and the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) has recommended that they face multiple charges for the role they played in the tragedy.

Charges were also recommended for two other crewmen.

Charges of manslaughter are likely to be recommended by the Director of Public prosecutions, as was done in the Pomeroon River tragedy which claimed six lives.

Among the breaches unearthed by MARAD during a preliminary probe are that boat captains Devon Thomas and Cobesh Persaud, while operating unlicensed vessels, failed to proceed at a safe speed, and operated with ‘reckless conduct’ and with inadequate life-saving equipment on board.

Investigations, so far, have revealed that Captains Thomas and Persaud violated sections of the River Navigation Regulations in that they conducted their vessels recklessly.

MARAD found that Mr. Persaud did not possess a steersman certificate of competence to operate his vessel, while the bowman of the Mattaran, Mr. Aubrey Bowen, was not in possession of a certificate of competency.

According to MARAD, the captains also violated sections of the Guyana Shipping Act (1998) and the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea. “Every vessel should at all times maintain a proper lookout by sight and hearing as well as by all available means appropriate to the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of a collision.

“Both vessels failed to maintain a proper look-out,” a

MARAD report stated.

MARAD noted that “every vessel shall proceed at a safe speed so that she can take proper and effective action to avoid collision and be stopped within a distance appropriate to the circumstances and conditions.

“Both vessels were not proceeding at a safe speed.”

Investig a t i o n s also revealed that Captain Cobesh Persaud was proceeding according to the regulation which stated that “a vessel proceeding along the course of a narrow channel or fairway shall keep as near to the outer limit of the channel or fairway which lies on her starboard side as is safe and practicable.”

However, according to MARAD, Thomas, the other boat captain, failed to observe this regulation. Maritime officials also found that both captains failed to navigate with caution according to a regulation which states that “a vessel nearing a bend or an area of a narrow channel or fairway where other vessels may be obscured by an intervening obstruction shall navigate with particular alertness and caution and shall sound the appropriate signal.”

Eleven passengers perished in late January when two boats collided near a ‘blind turn’ in the vicinity of Crab Falls, Mazaruni.

One of the vessels was reportedly equipped with two 200-horsepower (HP) engines

while the other had two 75horsepower engines. The approach speed of the two vessels was said to have been in excess of 100 miles per hour.

Minister of Transport Robeson Benn had said that two boats, one carrying 12 persons and the other carrying nine, collided around 12:30 hrs.

The dead included Ricky Bobb of Barr Street, Kitty; Kevon Ambrose of Vergenoegen, East Bank, Essequibo; Deon Moses, 33 of Norton Street, Georgetown; Keanu Amsterdam, 17, of Barr Street Kitty; Francis c o Alves, a Brazilian national; Jermaine Calistro, 27, of Boodhoo Housing Scheme, East Bank Essequibo (EBE); Ulric Grimes, 39, of Salem, East Bank Essequibo: Christopher Narine, 21, of Parika, East Bank Essequibo; Zahir Baksh, 34, of Kaneville; East Bank Demerara; Christopher Narine, and 52-year-old Jewan Seeram.

The tragedy occurred just a month after a boat captain and five passengers were killed in a two-boat crash in the Pomeroon.

This second collision had occurred even as the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD), the government regulator for vessels, was stepping up its checks to ensure vessels are fully certified and licensed.

Since then, more than 30 unlicensed boat operators and bow-men have approached MARAD officials in a bid to be certified.

Page 14

Kaieteur News

Saturday February 16, 2013

Uncertainty, bush surrounds multi-million complex With reports of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) soon to take up residence at the multimillion-dollar government complex on High Street, Georgetown, the government has offered no clarity on the transaction.

Currently, Caribbean Engineering Management Consultants (CEMCO) has workers at the site. The nature of their work could not immediately be ascertained.

Official sources confirmed that the deal to pass the building over was done between the GGMC and National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), the agency that is responsible for holding and selling government properties.

Officials at the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment are denying reports that the Ministry forced the GGMC to take up the building, and are instead insisting that the new facility is suited for the expansion activities of the GGMC. Meanwhile, contractor Kishan Bacchus said that he was the one who put down the 165,000 square foot facility, but is denying reports, including that from government sources that he was fired from the project.

Bacchus told Kaieteur News that he was paid an estimated $160 million for the work he did. He said to complete the project would

have cost much more, but that his contract was reviewed and he was asked to carry out works for the amount that he was paid.

At his weekly post Cabinet news briefing Thursday, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon stated that the government had agreed that some of the workforce and certain types of functions of the GGMC would be moved from Brickdam.

In 2011, then Minister of Labour, Manzoor Nadir, said that the complex, situated where the Guyana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) was once located, could have been completed by the end of that year.

Construction on the building started some five years ago, and remains an eyesore, with several sections falling apart and the facility surrounded by bush.

Nadir and Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh, have been tasked by Cabinet to look into the completion of the building.

At first, the government had said that the building would be used to house the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security.

But that decision was abandoned.

When the Ministry of Health was burned down, it was said that the building would, when completed, be used to house that Ministry.

However, it was later

Complex

indicated that the building would be used to house several government departments, to ease the rent the government pays for the use of several buildings around the city.

Later, it was suggested that the building could house offices of the Guyana Revenue Authority, but with the building incomplete, nothing materialised in that regard.

Kaieteur News understand that the GMMC was instructed to buy the defective High Street building for over $100 million, but it would have to spend many millions more to get it ready.

The GGMC has just spent millions on a new building in its Brickdam compound that

would have taken care of overcrowded offices and cramped conditions under which staffers now work.

At the said time, the Agency is planning to hire more field staff to monitor the interior, adding to its current level of 125.

Added to their financial burdens, the GGMC may be left with hefty utility bills as discussion on the issue of internet, water, telephones and electricity payments has not occurred.

GGMC might also have to tighten its belt since the charge to repair the unfinished High Street building has been estimated at a whopping $600M. The Natural Resource Ministry said that efforts are

ongoing to strengthen the human resources and technical capacity of the GGMC, coupled with the need for additional staff and services resulting in several components of the Commission such as the laboratory, library and other support services which will be relocated to the 44 High Street building.

The release said that the “Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), an agency of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, is currently expanding its monitoring and compliance of mining operations in the various mining districts to complement the rapid growth of the mining sector.”

As a result, they said, a Technical Evaluating Committee is currently reviewing bids for the design and rehabilitation of the said High Street building to accommodate upgraded laboratories, cartographic section, and library.

The release said that the GGMC has also completed the rehabilitation of two buildings at Upper Brickdam, one which is the stores to house spares and other supplies and the other, the administrative building which will accommodate staff of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission and the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, which provides support and guidance to the Commission.

Corentyne Changer holds Hospitality and Quality Customer Service Training

Some of the participants at the hospitality and quality customer service training Several persons in the restaurants, sales, hospitality and tourism sectors in the Upper Corentyne, Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne) were the beneficiaries of a recent two-day training programme in hospitality and quality customer service.

The programme was hosted by the Upper Corentyne Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UCCCI) in collaboration with the National Working Group (NWG) associated with the United Nations Development

Programme (UNDP) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The venue was the City Inn Guest House at Line Path Corriverton.

The resource persons for the event were NWG experts Ms. Maureen Paul and Mr. Randolph Williams.

Bartenders, travel agents, office staff, receptionists, waitresses, sale representatives and tour guides participated.

President of the UCCCI, Hemchand Jaichand, said that the objective was to

equip frontline staff with the skills and attitudes to offer a quality visitors experience to persons visiting the country and the Upper Corentyne.

They also taught them about obstacles to excellent customer service and why they should embrace excellence in providing such service.

The participants, Jaichand said, also took part in role play as a means of getting a practical take on the lectures/

discussions.

The UCCCI President said that as a result of the two-day exposure the participants are considered to be better able to perform to their respective jobs in a more professional manner.

“The expectation is that these persons, the first beneficiaries of this very first course up here on hospitality and quality customer service will be delivering their basic service with responsiveness, assurance, empathy and appropriate tangibles.”

Saturday February 16, 2013

Kaieteur News

McLean sues Govt for $7.9M gratuity …owed to him for over 20 years Major General (Ret’d) Norman McLean is suing the government for $7.9M in gratuity which he is owed for the past 22 years.

In documents filed in the High Court, McLean is claiming that the government is refusing to pay him the gratuity which became payable since January 1991.

McLean was employed by the government continuously without a break in service for over 36 years from June 1954 to December 1990.

He commenced work in the Treasury Department in June 1954 until he was appointed a Cadet Officer in the British Guiana Police Force in 1958.

He stayed in the Force until 1974 when he joined the Guyana National Service and served there until July 1979.

Just after, he entered the Guyana Defence Force as Brigadier and was promoted to the rank of Major General in 1985 and continued to serve as Chief of Staff of the Guyana Defence Force until his

retirement at the end of December 1990.

It is his combined gratuity that McLean is now suing the government for.

He said that he has made several demands for payment by writing all Presidents of Guyana commencing with Mr. Hugh Desmond Hoyte, Dr. Cheddi Jagan, Mrs. Janet Jagan, Mr. Bharrat J a g d e o a n d n o w M r.

D o n a l d R a m o t a r, “ a l l without success or without any tangible responses.”

McLean also wrote to Dr. Roger Luncheon, in his capacity as Chairman of the Defence Board outlining his grievances at the nonpayment of his gratuity.

In court documents, McLean claims that he has not received any payment of gratuity to date and neither has he been informed of any reason why he has not been paid.

McLean is suing under grounds that he is legally entitled to his gratuity pursuant to Article 214 of the

Constitution and that withholding payment amounts to deprivation of property and a contravention of his fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 142 of the Constitution.

McLean is now 78-yearsold. He attained the age of retirement, 55, in 1990. At the time of his retirement, he received a monthly salary of $14,184.

He also received personal allowances of $3,600 per annum and $2,400 in ration allowances. As such, he would have received a total of $176,210 in salary per annum at the time of his retirement.

McLean said that his 36 years of service to the government is beyond the 33 and one-third pensionable years that is the maximum number of pensionable years to qualify for payment of pension and gratuity.

Lawyers representing McLean are Rex McKay, S.C., Edward Luckhoo, S.C., and Neil Boston.

Muse or Amuse

Welcome to the Chinese labor force With one fell swoop, the Government of Guyana bartered a couple million dollars with a couple hundred Chinese.

Government excused its action as one of skilled workforce. So the Government saves about US$ 5 million by allowing about 500 Chinese workers here.

But wait a minute! So the hotel construction will use ONLY Chinese labourers!

Even the porters and basic workers must be skilled porters and skilled watchmen etc. In addition, Brassington is right, the Chinese will do their things like no Guyanese can.

Well, President Ramotar, I want to build a three-storey building in GT; can I bring in Chinese skills for this please?

Bet the answer is “No”….because special decisions for special people.

But then the President will answer me in Chinese and I would look dumb. He might even cuss me in Chinese and I wouldn’t even know.

I guess the real reason for the Chinese labour force is one that will expand across the country. They come in, build the Hotel, then the local Chinese will benefit from the excess stocks and materials (like they did from the Skeldon Factory); then they will start working on the roads and the electricity system, then the harbors, the IT-build-out, etc.

If you’re willing to bet, I will wager that within one year a school in Guyana will start teaching Chinese in their curriculum! And, the Government will start printing laws and other things in Chinese, alongside English.

Maybe we will see a road named after a Chinese, with Chinese letters. We already have a Chinese TV station, Chinese ferries, Chinese Factory, Chinese Road, a soon-to-be-built Chinese Hydro project, a soon-to-becompleted Chinese Hotel and Chinese Casino, many Chinese restaurants, soon a Chinese radio station, Chinese vehicles, Chinese in the electoral list, Chinese in Government, and the biggest of them all, a Chinese bank.

Then there is telecommunications which badly needs overhaul. Surely the Chinese can help us!

Why, from one angle, Guyana looks already like a little China.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the Chinese. In fact, I love them so much. They bring in cheap products, they learn our language and are present in an unobtrusive way, part of the community. Then their second generation takes off to North America.

Across Guyana we have Chinese restaurants, from a “Young Dabit” and a “Yong”

to a “New Thriving”, using creole words, Chinese words and English.

I love the Chinese.

Brassington should bring more of them. They are quiet and progressive people.

They build the nation and take over the business sector.

Maybe this will all be good for Guyana in the long run.

Oh, by the way, whenever someone listens to the pained speaking efforts of Brassington, he should really learn Chinese!

Meanwhile, the skilled Guyanese have read the message loud and clear. “Get out and stay out of Guyana.

The Government will save millions by bringing in people from other countries to work here.”

On one hand, one cannot argue with that, since our attitude in this country sucks big time. So, let the people who want to work come and work.

On the other hand, those who are learning their trade and gaining certification will see their future opportunities drying up with such programmes by the Government.

For now, I wish to say welcome to my dear Chinese friends. Huânyíng! BUT XiÎoxîn guîyÎnà zhèngfÔ.

See, I start learning Chinese….and I know you are amused!

Page 15

Mashramani in Berbice

Group unveils extensive anniversary programme For the second year running Berbicians will have the opportunity to celebrate two set of Mashramani celebrations. One organised by the residents of New Amsterdam, operating as the New Amsterdam Mash Committee and the other organised by the government, through the Regional Mashramani committee. The NewAmsterdam group will for the second year, be organising the activity which will end with a float parade through the streets of New Amsterdam on February 23.

The Regional Mashramani committee will have their float parade which is traditionally held one week after on the following Sunday, which this year will be held on March 3.The New Amsterdam group which is operating under the name Kiacalance Promotions (KaiKaieteur, Calance- calypso, dance, poetry) has outlined a series of activities which also has the blessings of the Regional Mash Committee.

The group is chaired by Ryan Alexander and the other members are Christopher Holder, Ms. Carol Fraser, Ava Lindie and Andre Ramotar.

The week of activities

began, yesterday, with an Environmental Day and cleanup exercise through the town of New Amsterdam.

The next activity will be an interfaith service which will be held on Sunday, beginning at 15:00hrs at the Banks DIH tarmac Main and New Street New Amsterdam. An innovation dubbed Kiacalance will follow that evening at the New Amsterdam Town Hall.

It will feature mainly youths and school children in dance, poetry, drama and calypso.

This is being held mainly with the aim of spotlighting and harnessing the wealth of talents available in the region which will include a number of the pieces that were on show at the children’s R e g i o n a l competition.Another innovation on the list of events is “Ole Kai Night” set for February 21.This activity will see groups from different areas around the township clad in raggedy outfits and masks, singing and dancing to folk music.

This activity will culminate at the Matthew Allen Road with a grand celebration at the New Amsterdam Stelling area where a grand cultural extravaganza will

be judged.

The group will join with the rest of Berbice in participating in the Flag raising ceremony which will be held on the Lawns of State House in New Amsterdam.

The Mash activity will continue with a grand costume and float parade dubbed the “Mash Overload”, on February 23 through the streets of New Amsterdam beginning at Tacama Turn, Islington New Amsterdam and proceeding to Stelling Road. A number of religious organisations and churches will participate including a group from the “Body of Christ” out of West Demerara. Trinidad, Barbados and the United States are expected to be a part of the road show accompanied by their own gospel music.

The final activity will be the “Clash of Divas” pageant slated for the New Amsterdam Technical Institute tarmac on March 1Speaking with the media in Berbice, Alexander stated that their group is strictly political. He said that its aim is to develop the town and create meaningful entertainment for the citizens and business community. and restoration of the town.

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Kaieteur News

Saturday February 16, 2013

Saturday February 16, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 17

Govt. and UNICEF ink US$1.2 M agreement to address children’s rights At a simple ceremony yesterday the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) re-sealed their commitment to forward collaborations on better understanding and addressing issues of children’s rights.

Affixing signatures to a work plan, which falls under the programme of cooperation between the two entities, were the Foreign Affairs Minister, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, and UNICEF’s Guyana and Suriname Representative, Dr Suleiman Braimoh, at the Ministry’s Shiv Chandarpaul Drive, Georgetown, conference room.

The work plan, according to Dr Braimoh, represents the second year of cooperation under the current programme cycle for the period of 20122016. He said that UNICEF is looking forward very eagerly to continue to support the Government with respect to child’s rights. “We think the signing ceremony is coming at a very good time given that the UNCRC, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, has just released its concluding observations on child rights situations in Guyana based on the combined second, third and fourth reports of the Government and we are looking forward to supporting the Government in moving forward in all these areas,” said Dr Braimoh.

UNICEF, according to him, is in fact supporting the Government in two major areas which not only seek to understand the issues of women and children but also to be able to put in place legislations, policies and strategies to address the challenges with respect to the rights of the children in the country.

Having in place necessary mechanisms, Dr Braimoh alluded to the need to provide support to allow for groundwork to be implemented to effect changes in the situations faced by both women and children.

Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett and UNICEF Representative Dr Suleiman Braimoh exchange signed agreements yesterday.

“This is the broad framework and this year will be a continuation from last year...The document (work plan) is not private or secret they are available for review,” said Dr Braimoh even as he commented on its content.

According to Minister Rodrigues-Birkett the 2013 work plan is in fact an agreement valued at US$1.2 million. This funding, she added, “might sound like a small amount but I have had the opportunity to work with UNICEF and we have seen how small amounts of monies can sometimes actually go a very, very far way when it comes to dealing with issues regarding women and children.”

She explained that UNICEF will be working along with Government mainly through its social sectors in particular the Ministries of Health, Human Services and Education. In the area of Education for instance, she said that collaboration will see the assessment of dormitories in the hinterland.

“This is something very

important for us because, recently we have seen some very unusual behaviours.

Some say it is the supernatural others say it could be mass hysteria but UNICEF will be working with us to assess those dormitories,” stated the Minister.

She asserted that “we don’t have a lot of examples in other countries to look at so that will be ground breaking.”

The work plan will directly focus on the importance of data collection. “I’m a firm believer in looking at policies only when you have data, because data inform policies so some of the works that are going to be done in terms of women and children would advice the government in terms of what policies we should put in place, what policies we should amend and what policies we should probably do away with as well so that is a very, very important aspect.”

The availability of reliable data, according to RodriguesBirkett, is in fact a problem that many developing

the purpose of trafficking.

Corporal Orin Joseph told the court that on February 11, between 10:00 hrs and 11:00 hrs police were on mobile patrol in the Stanleytown area when they noticed a man hurrying down a lonely dam in the vicinity of the New Amsterdam Tannery. The man had a black garbage bag slung over his shoulder.

The police pursued the

man whom they challenged, stopped and searched. They found a number of large parcels inside the bag.

The parcels which were suspected to contain leaves, seeds and stems of the marijuana were seized while Lindie was arrested. The drug weighed eight kilograms.

Bail was refused and he was remanded to jail until March 19, 2013.

Drug dealer refused bail Wayne Lindie, 37, called “Wayne” of Glasgow Housing scheme who was caught with a bag containing a quantity of marijuana was remanded to jail by Magistrate Adela Nagamootoo when he appeared before her at the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s court, yesterday, and pleaded not guilty to the charge of possession of narcotics for

countries face even as she insisted that Guyana has been striving to improve its data

collection. She added that another crucial area that the work plan will be seeking to tackle is the edification of members of parliament on child rights.

“There is always room for more knowledge,” the Minister said, despite the fact that parliamentarians are expected to have immense knowledge in this regard given the fact that they had voted for the relevant children’s Bills.

The signing of the work plan, according to RodriguesBirkett, comes at a time when a Parliamentary Select Committee has been appointed to look at recommendations emanating from the Universal Periodic Review. According to her, Parliament had in fact passed a motion to look at these recommendations as it relates to capital punishment, corporal punishment and issues relating to lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender.

In terms of corporal punishment, the select committee has already decided that efforts be made to engage UNICEF in order to hear from children and “I think we can work together...I think that is something that will be happening very soon,” said

the Foreign Affairs Minister.

She pointed to the fact that the technical assistance to help Government take responsibility as it relates to the Convention of the Rights of the Child, is a problem that many countries face, especially small countries in the Caribbean.

This is particular true when the notion of reporting to international bodies is considered while on the other hand, large countries are able to have entire departments dedicated to reporting, the Minister mused.

“We are very small countries with limited reporting and Guyana has actually in the last two, three years been trying to be updated in terms of our reporting and so we have been submitting a lot of our reports and I am happy that this is also included (in the work plan),” she added.

As such she amplified yesterday that “overall we value the relationship with UNICEF and we see them as a very important organisation in the UN family and this is why we sought to have Guyana elected to the executive board of UNICEF because we feel that we can make a contribution there,” she said.

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Kaieteur News

Saturday February 16, 2013

Canada probes Guyanese exec tipped as CARICOM’s deputy head

Dr. Naresh Singh, a Guyana-born executive seeking a top post at CARICOM is now under investigations by Canadian authorities for his alleged conflict of interest role in handing a C’dn$23.2M fund.

CARICOM is also now reviewing that application. Dr. Naresh Singh had almost gone past all the administrative obstacles on his way to secure the post of Deputy Secretary General, the second most powerful position in the regional trade body.

There are also questions as to how thorough the background checks were in this particular case when the Guyana Government gave its “no objection” to Singh being appointed to that position at CARICOM. But Foreign Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett explained that the “no objection” was a formality and came following a request

by Secretary General Irwin La Rocque. She said that Guyana was not involved in the nomination.

Asked to comment on the developments, Minister Rodrigues-Birkett said that Guyana was shocked and embarrassed.

For the conflict of interest situation, the Canadian

government has reportedly since ordered a hold on payments for the $23.2M Caribbean Local Economic Development (CARILED) Programme of which Singh was the Programme Director.

Last August, the Ministry of Local Government here signed an agreement with Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) that would see the administrations in Regions Two, Three, Four and Six receiving training to deal with residents who are interested in establishing and expanding businesses. At the event were Local Government’s Permanent Secretary, Collin Croal, Minister Ganga Persaud and Canadian Ambassador to Guyana, David Devine.

Managing the project was Singh and CARILED. But he reportedly resigned from his post at the FCM on Monday, after media tried to reach him for an interview.

According to a CBC report from Canada, Singh was a former executive with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) who was at the centre of a recent whistleblower

…CIDA’s conflict of interest situation cited

Under Fire: Dr. Naresh Singh watchdog report. He reportedly left CIDA in a midst of an audit probe.

However, there are questions about how he was hired to manage the multimillion CARILED programme which was funded by CIDA, his former employer. This is the alleged conflict of interest that is now the subject of a probe.

PROBE Canada’s International Co-operation Minister, Julian

Foreign Minister, Carolyn RodriguesBirkett Fantino, has since referred the case to the public sector integrity commissioner.

“It has come to my attention that a former CIDA employee may have been in a conflict of interest,” Fantino said in a press release on Thursday.

On Thursday, the FCM sent an email to CBC News confirming that Singh resigned from the FCM. “Naresh Singh resigned earlier this week as director of the Caribbean Local Economic Development (CARILED) programme, to pursue other employment opportunities,” said Mouktar Abdillahi, a media relations advisor for the FCM.

Public office holders in Canada are subject to conflict of interest and postemployment rules.

While it is not clear whether Singh broke any rules or whether Mario Dion, the public integrity commissioner, will open a new investigation into the former CIDA executive, Fantino said future payments for this project will be withheld “until further notice.”

The payments for the Local Government Ministry here would be affected but officials were not immediately available for comment yesterday.

According to media reports on the issue, Singh sparked an investigation at CIDA after he allegedly used office resources such as fax machines and a government email address to conduct private business.

The executive also allegedly recruited administrative staff to assist in the job, which essentially was consulting with the private sector on the same subject matter the individual worked on in government, Dion said in media reports.

An investigation, which covered two years of records, confirmed the allegations.

The executive reportedly left the agency while the investigations were underway.

NO BACKGROUND? Meanwhile, on the issue of Singh being tipped for the post as Deputy Secretary General (SG) of CARICOM, Kaieteur News learnt that Guyana may not have been aware of the Canadian investigation against him when it granted a “no objection” to his possible appointment.

According to Foreign Affairs Minister, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, CARICOM’s Secretary General, Irwin LaRocque, had asked the Government of Guyana several months ago for its “no objections” in the process for the appointment of Singh.

The Minister said that at the time, Guyana was not aware of anything against Dr. Singh and as such granted its “no objections”.

However, this week Ambassador LaRocque was again in contact with the Foreign Ministry and it was indicated that the CARICOM Secretariat may be reviewing the entire situation.

Singh reportedly has an impressive background and was chosen as director of CARILED, earning C’dn$100,000 per year, plus significant travel allowances.

He was appointed to that position on February 1, 2012 and began a series of trips to the countries covered by the project, where in some cases he was received by ministers.

Sometimes he was even accompanied by Canadian diplomats or officials from CIDA - the organization he had left a few months earlier.

GPL worker suffers electrical burns, slides down utility pole A 19-year-old Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Company worker is clinging to life in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) after he suffered electrical burns on Thursday at Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice.

Severely injured is Seon Scott of Limlair Village, Corentyne, Berbice.

According to information the 19-year-old was at the top of a utility pole at Bath Settlement when he reportedly slid down the pole with burns from his neck to his lower body. He was unconscious.

Scott was rushed to Fort Wellington Hospital by his colleagues and was

Sean Scott subsequently transferred to GPHC. According to the injured man’s cousin, Cabena Scott, she was informed that her cousin was unconscious up

to press time yesterday, “his left side is paralyzed, from his neck to his knee is burnt and he basically depends on a life support machine.”

Cabena Scott said that she received a telephone call from her aunt who informed her that her cousin met with an accident and he was transferred to the city’s hospital. When she rushed to the hospital, she was told that her cousin sustained “three scorches to his brain.”

She added that her family is trying to find answers as to what exactly happened with her cousin since the workers who were present when the incident occurred are not giving the details as to what really happened.

Saturday February 16, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Jamaica and IMF reach “agreement” on key elements of US$750 million programme KINGSTON, Jamaica CMC – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) yesterday said it had reached a “staff-level agreement” with Jamaica on the key elements of an economic programme that can be supported by US$750 million four year arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).

“We have agreed on understandings that are reflected in the authorities’ economic programme, as stated in the Letter of Intent that will be reviewed by IMF management and finalized before the agreement is approved.

“Staff envisages that the IMF’s Executive Board would consider the proposed arrangement under the EFF by the end of March, subject to the timely completion of prior actions to be taken by the Jamaican government and obtaining necessary financing assurances,” said Jan Kees Martijn, head of the IMF mission to Jamaica.

“The authorities have announced a debt exchange that, along with the fiscal adjustment and structural reform measures in the economic programme, will help reduce Jamaica’s medium-term financing needs and contribute to debt sustainability.

“In addition to continued support from international financial institutions and other official creditors, the success of the authorities programme will depend critically on a high rate of participation of private creditors in the debt exchange. All these elements will help secure financing assurances for a Fundsupported programme,” he added. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller urged nationals to accept the stringent measures that will accompany the IMF agreement that would include increases taxes and the launch of a national debt exchange offer on Tuesday.

In a joint address to the nation, Prime Minister Simpson Miller and her finance minister Dr. Peter Phillips defended the decision to enter into the agreement with the Washington based financial institution, telling citizens that the national debt now stands at 140 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“As long as our debt as a percentage of our economy remains this high, our capacity for growth and development will be severely limited,” Prime Minister Simpson Miller said, noting that the negotiations have underscored the point that sustained growth will not materialize with Jamaica’s present level of debt.

She said that with the high debt, no administration will be able to provide and sustain the quality health care service, nor will it be able to modernize and maintain the country’s infrastructure at the appropriate levels to facilitate increased economic activity.

Regional countries urged to voice disapproval over new EU policy GEORGETOWN, Guyana - CMC - Caribbean Community (CARICOM) parliamentarians have been told they must adopt a strong position at the 9th Regional meeting of the African Caribbean and Pacific – European Union (ACP-EU) Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) against the EU’s approach to differentiation.

The meeting, which ends today, is taking place in the Dominican Republic, A statement from the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) Implementation Unit said that the EU has indicated that it will apply the principle of differentiation to the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) National Indicative Programmes (NIPs), with the resultant effect that the majority of NIPs in the Caribbean region will be cut.

“Such action is regrettable,” the statement said, quoting Ivan Ogando Lora, the Director-General of the Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM).

He said “the European Union has been a valued, longstanding development partner. However, its stance on differentiation has prompted the CARIFORUM region to take a hard look at this partnership, as, at a time when regional states are counting on reliable

Irwin LaRocque resources to implement the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and the Caribbean-EU Joint Strategy”.

Oganda Lora said that neither the EPA, which was signed in 2008 between CARIFORUM countries and the EU and the Caribbean-EU Joint Strategy make specific provisions for financial support.

He said the EDF, as the core source for financing development cooperation within the framework of CARIFORUM-EU relations, now faces the prospect of being scaled back and cautioned that the mechanics of the application of differentiation remain internal to the European Commission.

The statement said that Oganda is expected to address the meeting in the Dominican Republic and “will

delve into various facets of the implementation of the EPA, with a particular focus on issues of note that the CARIFORUM and EU sides have engaged on through the Joint Institutions that oversee the implementation process”.

It said Ogando “will call attention to the negative effects of the EU’s New Development Policy, about which Caribbean leaders have already raised serious concerns”.

Caribbean leaders recently voiced their concerns with respect to the new EU Development Policy, in discussions with the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy and President of the European Commission José Manuel Durão Barroso in Chile last month.

Last December, St. Lucia’s Prime Minister Dr., Kenny Anthony described as “disquieting” the issues of differentiation and graduation, which he said “target the economic vitality and the future development of some vulnerable (ACP) member states.”

CARICOM Secretary General Irwin LaRocque has also expressed concern over the possibility of a decrease in development assistance from the EU under the new policy.

Dr. Peter Phillips and Jan Kees Martijn

“The centrepiece of the IMF agreement that we will sign is a commitment to significantly reduce the debt from the current level of over 140 per cent. This is critical to our Economic Reform Programme,” she said, adding that it is also fundamental to job creation and provide the social services for citizens.

Martijn said over the last three decades, the Jamaican economy has experienced very low economic growth, declining productivity, and reduced international competitiveness.

He said an important factor behind these problems has been Jamaica’s unsustainable debt burden, which has undermined confidence and elevated risks to economic stability.

“Additionally, Jamaica’s high debt service has limited the government’s potential to provide the services needed to achieve sustained rates of growth and increased welfare for its citizens. “

Martijn said that the main objective of Jamaica’s economic reform programme is to contain the country’s rising economic and external vulnerabilities and address economic imbalances, while putting Jamaica on a path of sustainable growth.

The programme also aims to promote macroeconomic and financial stability, including through achieving and sustaining higher primary fiscal surpluses that can help underpin debt sustainability, pave the way for private-sector led growth through the implementation of a comprehensive set of structural reforms, and promote social stability through enhanced social protection for the most vulnerable.”

The IMF official this would involve implementing a coordinated set of reforms to strengthen public finances, including through comprehensive tax reform, expenditure rationalization,

and improved public debt management and public financial management.

He said it would also enhance the resilience of the financial sector through strengthened supervisory, regulatory, and crisis management frameworks, improve growth-generating efficiency through enhancements to the business environment, increased competitiveness, and strengthened institutional capacity and governance, including through a broad legislative agenda.

The IMF official said it would also protect the most vulnerable and promote economic self-reliance, including through the establishment of a floor on social spending, maintaining the real value of PATH (Program of Advancement through Health and Education) benefits, and expanding re-certification and the Steps-to-Work programme.

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Kaieteur News

Saturday February 16, 2013

Barbados Labour party unveils manifesto, priority to put country on growth path BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - CMC – The main opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) says it will launch a forensic audit into the collapse of the insurance company, CLICO, if it wins the February 21 general elections here.

The party on Thursday night launched its 84-page manifesto that Opposition Leader Owen Arthur said is

aimed at putting the country back on a path of economic growth as well as address other important issues in the country. Arthur has been critical of the present Democratic Labour Party (DLP) government of Prime Minister Freundel Stuart over its handling of the CLICO affair, contending that many Barbadian policy holders had lost millions of dollars

following the collapse of the Trinidad-based regional insurance giant.

The manifesto promises voters a reduction in the Value Added Tax (VAT) from 17.5 to 15 per cent on electricity bills and food, a removal of taxes on entertainment and travel allowances, introduce a 25 per cent income tax on taxable income between BDS$35,001 and BDS$50,000 (One BDS

dollar = US$0.50 cents) and under allowances, registered saving plans of up to BDS$10,000 and personal income taxes for pension up to BDS50, 000.

The BLP spokesman on economics, Clyde Mascoll, told party supporters that as BLP government would give back to citizens 50 per cent on the improved value of property at a cost of BDS$11

million.

The opposition party is also pledging to construct flyovers and a new expressway as it brushed aside what Arthur described as “ a passive train of thought” that nothing can be done due to the international recession.

Arthur, a former finance minister, told supporters that the manifesto did not contain any false promises.

“We can’t afford to build a new hospital, because it will cost one billion dollars and we do not have that,” he said, adding that the manifesto “reflects what is possible and doable. “It is not the party’s manifesto, but the people’s manifesto.

We do not lack the resources to put this country back together,” Arthur said, adding that banks were flush with liquidity and therefore must be pressed into service to help build this economy.

He promised supporters that the three billion dollar in foreign exchange could also be used to help improve the

Owen Arthur country.

Meanwhile, the DLP will launch its manifesto on Friday night.

“Our manifesto is ready.

Today is one week from the Election Day and we are happy to report that our manifesto has been completed and will be launched on Friday 15 November...,” said DLP strategic member and candidate for Christ Church East Central constituency Ronald Jones.

The theme of the DLP’s 56 page manifesto is “continuing our Pathway to Progress”.

Regional leaders for historic meeting in Haiti GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders will meet in Haiti next week for their annual Intersessional summit to discuss a wide range of issues including crime and security, the CARICOM Regional Aid for Trade Strategy, and a report on the Regional Architecture for Financial Stability.

A CARICOM Secretariat statement said that the “historic” meeting will be addressed by the host head of state, President Michel Martelly, St. Lucia’s Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony and the CARICOM Secretary General Irwin LaRocque.

The two-day meeting will

be the first ever held by CARICOM leaders in the French-speaking country, now recovering from a powerful earthquake in 2010 that killed an estimated 300,000 people and left more than a million others homeless.

President Martelly will serve as chairman of the 15member grouping for the next six months.

Absent from the meeting are likely to be Grenada’s Prime Minister Tillman Thomas and his Barbados counterpart, Freundel Stuart.

Both men are leading their respective political parties into general elections on February 19 and 21 respectively.

Former High Court judge elected as Trinidad and Tobago’s new head of state Trinidad Express - It’s official. Former Justice Anthony Carmona was this afternoon elected to be the next President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. The declaration was made House Speaker Wade Mark at a meeting of the Electoral College, at the Parliament Chamber, International Waterfront, Port-of-Spain.

President-elect Carmona, the only nominee for the position, will assume the position March 18, when he is inaugurated at Knowsley Building, Queens Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain.

Outgoing President George Maxwell Richards left the country yesterday on vacation. As a result, Senate President Timothy Hamel-Smith will act as President during the absence.

Saturday February 16, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Venezuela shows first Chavez photos, says has trouble speaking CARACAS (Reuters) Venezuela published the first photos of cancer-stricken Hugo Chavez since his surgery in Havana more than two months ago, and said the socialist president was breathing through a tracheal tube and struggling to speak.

The pictures showed the 58-year-old, his face looking swollen but smiling, lying down in a hospital bed and flanked by his two daughters.

In one, they were reading Thursday’s edition of the Cuban state newspaper Granma.

The photos were shown yesterday by Chavez’s sonin-law, Science Minister Jorge Arreaza, who has been traveling between Havana and Caracas to be at his bedside. He said that Chavez - whose political identity is built around long-winded speeches, meandering talk shows and casual chatter with supporters - was having trouble talking.

“He doesn’t have his usual voice,” Arreaza told Venezuelan state television.

“He has difficulty communicating verbally, but he makes himself understood.

He communicates his decisions perfectly. He writes them down.”

Chavez has not appeared in public, and has still not been heard from, since the operation on December 11, his fourth surgery for a cancer

in his pelvic region first diagnosed in mid-2011.

Neither the pictures nor the new details on his condition offer solid clues as to when he might be able to return home, or whether the disease will force him to step down.

Allies appear content to let Chavez continue governing silently from Havana indefinitely, and bristle when asked about how the long the unusual arrangement could last.

The former soldier has never disclosed what type of cancer he has been treated for, and in his absence critics have accused government officials of secrecy over his condition.

“A few days ago the liars said they were speaking with the president. Now they say he can’t talk!” opposition leader Henrique Capriles said on Twitter. “They are playing around with their own people.”

Chavez was re-elected for a new six-year term in October after appearing to have staged a remarkable recovery from the disease following three earlier operations and weeks of grueling chemotherapy and radiation sessions.

But he soon had to fly back to Cuba for more medical tests, then another round of complex surgery. He was too ill to return to Venezuela for

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez smiles in between his daughters, Rosa Virginia (R) and Maria Thursday. Reuters/Ministry of Information/Handout his inauguration ceremony last month.

The government, which said the new photos were taken on Thursday night, added that he has respiratory problems.

“The post-operative respiratory infection was controlled, but there is still some insufficiency,” it said in its latest official communiqué on the president’s health.

“Under these circumstances, which are being treated, the commander is currently breathing through a tracheal tube.”

On Wednesday, Vice President Nicolas Maduro -

DLP team meets Muslim community

Prime Minister Freundel Stuart engages young and older memebers of the Muslim community. (Nigel Browne) Barbados Nation - The Democratic Labour Party (DLP) headed by leader Prime Minister Freundel Stuart engaged in an almost 45 minutes no holds barred discussion with the Muslim community at their Mosque at Kensington New Road, St. Michael yesterday, touching on topics of education, energy, the Palestinian situation and same sex marriage.

The visitors, on the invitation of the Muslim community as a familiarisation tour in light of the February 21 General Elections in Barbados, also underscored the diversity that the Muslims brought to the island and highlighted their entrepreneurial spirit and its impact on the lives of ordinary Barbadians.

The DLP team comprised also Patrick Todd, candidate for the City, Michael Carrington of St. Michael West, Donville Inniss of St. James South and Richard Sealy

of St. Michael South Central.

Touting that there was always good relations with the Muslim community Sealy, while paying tribute to former DLP Minister of Health Sir Branford Taitt, who died today, said Taitt had made it possible for a section of Westbury cemetery to be used by Muslims for burying their dead.

“It is upon the shoulders of stalwarts like that that we continue to accept the diversity of Barbados.”

Sealy referred to Asia as a market to be considered as one of Barbados’ emerging tourists sources and noted the appeal for airlift opportunities, if only for the time during the Haj where Muslims go on their pilgrimage, was under consideration.

“We do see your work and role as being fundamental.”

Chavez’s preferred successor - said his boss was undergoing “tough” and “complex” alternative treatments, but did not give details. If Chavez died or had to step aside, the authorities would have to call a new vote within 30 days. That would likely pit Maduro against Capriles, the 40-year-old governor of Miranda state

who lost to Chavez in last October’s election.

Maduro has sought to copy Chavez’s fierce rhetoric against his rivals, and yesterday he again took aim at Capriles.

“This loser’s heart is so bad it makes it mad that President Chavez is well,” the vice president said in televised comments. Amid so much uncertainty, some in the opposition believe Cuba’s Fidel and Raul Castro - close Chavez allies - could be pulling strings behind the scenes. About 20 student protesters chained themselves together in a street near the Cuban embassy in Caracas on Thursday, demanding details on his condition. Maduro warned that Capriles and others in the “neo-fascist” opposition would be held responsible for any violence there. For many critics Maduro’s words were an echo of Chavez’s typically combative style, harsh criticism of Washington and radical leftist policies, including widespread nationalizations, which they say have crippled the OPEC nation’s economy.

But the president’s singular brand of oil-fueled welfare spending and folksy charisma has also won him a near-religious following among many poor Venezuelans. Supporters reacted to the new images with joy, tweeting: “Chavez lives and smiles!”

“Chavez’s smile is the smile of the children, of the mothers, the young, the soldiers and the men. It’s the smile of the fatherland,” said Diosdado Cabello, the powerful head of the National Assembly and an ex-army buddy of the president.

The normally loquacious leader’s silence since the surgery has convinced many Venezuelans that his extraordinary 14 years in power could be coming to an end.

His son-in-law Arreaza, however, described a lighthearted mood around the president, who he said enjoyed receiving visitors in his hospital room where he listened to music from his rural boyhood home in Venezuela’s central plains.

“It’s a party,” Arreaza told state TV.

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Saturday February 16, 2013

Islamists rally for Egypt’s Mursi in Cairo CAIRO (Reuters) Thousands of Islamists rallied in Cairo yesterday in support of Mohamed Mursi, the Muslim Brotherhood president who has been the target of protester rage in weeks of violent demonstrations.

Repeating the pattern of recent weeks, Mursi’s opponents rallied again yesterday, this time gathering outside El-Quba, one of the presidential palaces in the northern suburbs of Cairo.

The activists dubbed it “Checkmate Friday”.

The protest, which drew several hundred people by afternoon descended into violence as night fell. State media reported that “troublemakers” had thrown rocks and petrol bombs.

Security forces unleashed tear gas and water cannon, it said.

The pro-Mursi rally was called by a hardline Salafi Islamist group, Al-Gama’a alIslamiya, in what it described as a protest under the banner “Together Against Violence”.

The group waged an armed insurrection against the state in the 1990s but its

leadership renounced violence more than a decade ago. It has entered mainstream politics since autocratic president Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in 2011.

The Muslim Brotherhood and its Freedom and Justice Party said it backed Friday’s rally in a symbolic way but did not mobilize supporters for the event, meaning the numbers were smaller than at previous Islamist protests.

Around 60 people have been killed in Egypt since late January in unrest touched off by the anniversary of the uprising against Mubarak and exacerbated by a court ruling that sentenced 21 people to death over a soccer stadium disaster a year ago.

It has been the worst bloodshed since Mursi assumed office, underlining the instability that continues to thwart government efforts to restore a sense of normalcy and revive an economy in crisis by attracting fresh investment and tourism.

The unrest has been stirred by anger at Mursi and his Islamist backers, who the opposition says have betrayed the revolution and

sought to monopolize power - accusations dismissed by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Recent protests have routinely turned violent, with government buildings, police stations and the presidential palace coming under fire from petrol bombs and rocks.

Trouble also flared outside of Cairo on Friday. In al-Mahalla al-Kubra, an industrial town, protesters set fire to a local government building, state TV reported. In Alexandria, the security forces briefly fought protesters when they tried to force their way into a police station, witnesses said.

The pro-Mursi rally in Cairo grew to several thousand after prayer. “The person who came (to power) through ballot boxes will not leave by petrol bombs,” said a cleric who led the crowd in Friday prayers at the rally. “He who came to power by direct, free choice will not leave by the rocks thrown by children.”

“No to Violence. Yes to sharia (Islamic law),” declared a banner held aloft from the crowd.

“With our blood and

Protesters shout slogans against Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi and members of the Muslim Brotherhood at Tahrir Square in Cairo yesterday.

REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh souls we will sacrifice ourselves for Islam!” chanted the crowd that assembled outside Cairo University.

“The people want an iron fist,” read another banner.

Some people journeyed in from the provinces for the rally. At one point, the mother of Khaled al-Islambouli, one of the Islamists behind President Anwar Sadat’s 1981 assassination, appeared on stage, drawing cheers as she waved to the throng.

“Mohamad Mursi is a legitimate leader who was elected by the will of the

people,” said Mohamad Omar, from Mansoura north of the capital. He came on a bus chartered by al-Gama’a al-Islamiya.

“The opposition’s methods of violence, petrol bomb-throwing, igniting fires and causing destruction is not accepted by the Islamists,” added Alaa Abdulwahab, a 45-year-old who had travelled from Minya, a four-hour journey south of Cairo.

Mursi’s most prominent liberal and leftist opponents have distanced themselves

from the violence, saying they support only peaceful agitation. Islamist leaders and their rivals all renounced violence at crisis talks on January 31 chaired by alAzhar, a Sunni Muslim seat of religious learning.

Islamist groups such as al-Gama’a al-Islamiya were repressed by Mubarak during his 30 years in power. But they have moved into the heart of public life since his fall, alarming secular-minded Egyptians who worry they aim to dominate the new Egypt.

Chad ministers fired after entire police force suspended N’DJAMENA (Reuters) - Chadian President Idriss Deby fired two ministers in charge of security after his suspension last week of the central African nation’s entire nearly 6,000-member police force following allegations of graft, favoritism and abuse.

In an announcement read over state radio late on Thursday, Deby sacked Public Security Minister Ahmat Mahamat Bachir, and Bachar Ali Souleymane, minister of territorial administration. The dismissals followed the firing of Chad’s police chief on February 6, two days after the suspension of the force itself.

“The two ministers are guilty of favoritism during the police recruitment process. They hired people with little competence and promoted them within the police,” a member of the commission carrying out a review of the force on Deby’s orders told Reuters. He asked not to be named.

The commission had uncovered widespread irregularities in the police force, whose duties since its suspension, including public safety patrols and traffic control, were being carried out by paramilitary gendarmes, the source said.

The security shake-up was taking place in the oil-producing country at a time when hundreds of its soldiers led by Deby’s son were helping French and Malian forces to hunt Islamist insurgents in Mali, further to the west on the continent.

Chad’s president had given the review

Idriss Déby commission a month to check every member of the police force and ensure each was hired according to the rules, and for specific jobs.

Chad has produced oil for nearly a decade but the land-locked country’s economy has been hamstrung for years by graft and instability.

In February last year, Deby sacked the minister for morality and good governance after he was charged with corruption. He was accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars meant to fund efforts to fight graft.

Saturday February 16, 2013

Kaieteur News

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MANUFACTURING STUMBLES BUT SEEN REGAINING FOOTING WA S H I N G T O N (Reuters) - Manufacturing got off to a weak start this year as motor vehicle output tumbled in January, but a rebound in factory activity in New York State this month suggested any setback would be temporary.

In a further sign the sluggish economic recovery remains on track, consumers were a bit more upbeat early this month even as they paid more for gasoline and saw an increase in taxes reduce their paychecks, other data yesterday showed.

“The economy is on a slowly improving course and it’s got enough headwinds that we are going to see some volatility in these month-bymonth numbers,” said Jerry Webman, chief economist at OppenheimerFunds in New York.

Manufacturing output fell 0.4 percent last month, the Federal Reserve said. But production in November and December was much stronger than previously thought and the 3.2 percent drop in auto output - the largest since August - followed two solid months, suggesting it was just a temporary pause.

“Given that most of the weakness was due to the give-back in motor vehicle production after the 11 percent surge in activity during the last two months of last year, we expect this retreat in industrial output to be temporary,” said Millan Mulraine, senior economist at TD Securities in New York.

In a separate report, the New York Federal Reserve Bank said its “Empire State” general business conditions index, which gauges factory activity in the state, rose to 10.0 from -7.8 the month before. February’s index showed the first growth in the sector since July and the best performance since May 2012.

The rebound was driven by new orders, which hit their highest level since May 2011.

Economists said the pick-up in activity likely reflected recovery from Superstorm Sandy, which struck the East Coast in late October.

“What we are seeing in manufacturing is that growth that had been leading the economy is now roughly keeping pace with the overall economy and that’s likely to remain the case through 2013,” said Gus Faucher, senior economist at PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh.

Separately, the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment rose to 76.3 in early February from 73.8 in January.

Households drew comfort from steady job gains, which together with rising home and stock prices should help offset a recent increase in payroll taxes and underpin consumer spending.

“Consumers are getting over the fact that their paychecks are a little smaller since the beginning of the year due to the sunset of the

File photo of Chevrolet Cruze chassis moving along the assembly line at the General Motors Cruze assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio.

REUTERS/Aaron Josefczyk payroll tax holiday,” said Thomas Simons, an economist at Jefferies & Co. in New York.

“This offers some encouragement that consumption will recover following a weak month in January.”

The fairly upbeat sentiment data helped to lift the dollar against the yen, but stocks on Wall Street were little moved, consolidating after a rally that saw the Standard & Poor’s 500 index rise nearly 7 percent so far this year.

Last month’s weakness in

EU to tighten sanctions on North Korea after nuclear test BRUSSELS (Reuters) The European Union will tighten sanctions on North Korea to curb trade in gold and diamonds and crack down on financial links in protest at Pyongyang’s recent rocket launch and nuclear bomb test, EU diplomats said yesterday.

Diplomats have agreed on a new list of sanctions which will be formally approved by EU foreign ministers on Monday.

Diplomats from Britain and several other EU countries with embassies in North Korea are also expected to show their displeasure by boycotting Saturday’s celebrations of the birth of late leader Kim Jong-il, one EU diplomat said.

North Korea drew widespread international condemnation this week by conducting its third nuclear test in defiance of United

Nations resolutions. The test advanced it further along the path towards developing a workable long-range nuclear missile.

It followed a widely criticized rocket launch in December.

Reuters reported earlier that North Korea has told its key ally, China, that it is prepared to stage one or even two more nuclear tests this year in an effort to force the United States into talks.

The 27-nation EU will adopt expanded sanctions approved by the U.N. Security Council in January but will add others of its own, according to EU diplomats. It will also say that it is considering further measures.

The new EU sanctions ban trade with North Korea in some components that could be used in ballistic missiles and “certain types of aluminum used in ballistic

missile-related systems”, one EU diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.

The European Union already has an extensive list of sanctions on North Korea, including on technology that could be used in a nuclear or ballistic missile program.

The new EU sanctions will prohibit trade in gold and other precious metals, and diamonds, with North Korean public bodies and will ban trade in new public bonds issued by North Korea, the diplomats said.

North Korean banks would be barred from opening new branches in the European Union and European banks would not be able to open new branches in the northeast Asian state.

North Korea is one of the world’s most isolated states and the diplomats could not say if North Korean banks had any branches in the EU.

manufacturing contributed to pushing overall industrial production down 0.1 percent.

Production at the nation’s mines fell 1.0 percent, but cold weather boosted utilities production by 3.5 percent.

The need for Americans to spend more money on utilities in January should support consumer spending this quarter.

Forecasting firm Macroeconomic Advisers

raised their first-quarter growth estimate by a tenth of a percentage point to a 2.5 percent annual rate, which would be a nice step up after a dismally weak fourth quarter.

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Saturday February 16, 2013

Meteorite explodes over Russia, more than 1,000 injured CHELYABINSK, Russia (Reuters) - A meteorite streaked across the sky and exploded over central Russia yesterday, raining fireballs over a vast area and causing a shock wave that smashed windows, damaged buildings and injured 1,200 people.

People heading to work in Chelyabinsk heard what sounded like an explosion, saw a bright light and then felt the shock wave, according to a Reuters correspondent in the industrial city 1,500 km (950 miles) east of Moscow.

The fireball, travelling at a speed of 30 km (19 miles) per second according to Russian space agency Roscosmos, had blazed across the horizon, leaving a long white trail that could be seen as far as 200 km (125 miles) away.

Car alarms went off, thousands of windows shattered and mobile phone networks were disrupted. The Interior Ministry said the meteorite explosion, a very rare spectacle, also unleashed a sonic boom.

“I was driving to work, it was quite dark, but it suddenly became as bright as

if it were day,” said Viktor Prokofiev, 36, a resident of Yekaterinburg in the Urals Mountains.

“I felt like I was blinded by headlights.”

The meteorite, which weighed about 10 metric tons and may have been made of iron, entered Earth’s atmosphere and broke apart 30-50 km (19-31 miles) above ground, according to Russia’s Academy of Sciences.

The energy released when it entered the Earth’s atmosphere was equivalent to a few kilotonnes, the academy said, the power of a small atomic weapon exploding.

No deaths were reported but the Emergencies Ministry said 20,000 rescue and cleanup workers were sent to the region after President Vladimir Putin told Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov to ease the disruption and help the victims. The Interior Ministry said about 1,200 people had been injured, at least 200 of them children, and most from shards of glass.

The early-morning blast and ensuing shock wave blew out windows on Chelyabinsk’s central Lenin

Street, buckled some shop fronts, rattled apartment buildings in the city center and blew out windows.

“I was standing at a bus stop, seeing off my girlfriend,” said Andrei, a local resident who did not give his second name. “Then there was a flash and I saw a trail of smoke across the sky and felt a shock wave that smashed windows.”

A wall and roof were badly damaged at the Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant but a spokeswoman said no environmental threat resulted.

One piece of meteorite broke through the ice the Cherbakul Lake near Chelyabinsk, leaving a hole several meters (yards) wide.

The region has long been a hub for the Russian military and defense industry, and it is often the site where artillery shells are decommissioned.

A local Emergencies Ministry official said meteorite storms were extremely rare and Friday’s incident may have been connected with an asteroid the size of an Olympic swimming pool that was due to pass Earth.

Meteorite hits Russia

But an astronomer at Russia’s Academy of Sciences, Sergei Barabanov, cast doubt on that report and the European Space Agency said its experts had confirmed there was no link.

The regional governor in Chelyabinsk said the meteorite shower had caused more than $30 million in damage, and the Emergencies Ministry said 300 buildings had been affected.

Despite warnings not to approach any unidentified objects, some enterprising locals were hoping to cash in.

“Selling meteorite that fell on Chelyabinsk!” one prospective seller, Vladimir, said on a popular Russian auction website. He attached a picture of a black piece of stone that on Friday afternoon was priced at 1,488 roubles ($49.46).

The Emergencies Ministry described yesterday’s events as a “meteorite shower in the form of fireballs” and said background radiation levels were normal. It urged residents not to panic.

The first footage was shot by car dashboard video cameras and soon went viral.

Russians also quickly made fun at the event on the Internet. A photo montage showed Putin riding the meteorite and Nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovksy said in jest it was really a new weapon being tested by the United States.

Experts drew comparisons with an incident in 1908, when a meteorite is thought to have devastated an area of more than 2,000 sq km (1,250 miles) in Siberia, breaking windows as far as 200 km (125 miles)

from the point of impact.

Simon Goodwin, an astrophysics expert from Britain’s University of Sheffield, said that roughly 1,000 to 10,000 metric tons of material rained down from space towards the earth every day, but most burned up in the atmosphere.

“While events this big are rare, an impact that could cause damage and death could happen every century or so. Unfortunately there is absolutely nothing we can do to stop impacts.”

The meteorite struck just as an asteroid known as 2012 DA14, about 46 m in diameter, was due to pass closer to Earth - at a distance of 27,520 km (17,100 miles) - than any other known object of its size since scientists began routinely monitoring asteroids about 15 years ago.

U.S. files fraud case against former congressman Jesse Jackson Jr (Reuters) - Prosecutors filed criminal charges of fraud and conspiracy yesterday against former Chicago congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., accusing him and an unnamed co-conspirator of misusing $750,000 in campaign funds.

Though Jackson, the son of the famed civil rights leader, did not immediately enter any plea, his lawyers released a statement from him admitting mistakes as the charges were filed in U.S. District Court in Washington.

“I offer no excuses for my conduct and I fully accept my responsibility for the

Jesse Jackson Jr. improper decisions and mistakes I have made,” said Jackson, a Democrat.

Prosecutors filed a related charge against his wife, Sandi

Jackson, a former Chicago alderman, accusing her of knowingly filing false tax returns.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, Jesse Jackson Jr. faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and she faces three years in prison if convicted, but defendants often are sentenced to much less than the maximum.

Jackson resigned his congressional seat last November 21 and said that treatment for bipolar disorder, a condition marked by extreme mood swings, was incompatible with serving his constituents.

Saturday February 16, 2013

Kaieteur News

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British PM Cameron eyes jet deal ahead of India trade trip LONDON (Reuters) British Prime Minister David Cameron will arrive in India on Monday to try to win new trade and investment in the face of fierce global competition, hoping New Delhi may change its mind and choose the Eurofighter over France’s rival Rafale jet.

Making his second visit to India as prime minister, Cameron’s trip comes days after a similar trade promotion mission by French President Francois Hollande, underlining how Europe’s debt-stricken states are competing with one another to tap into one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

The timing of Cameron’s trip is not ideal. India said yesterday it wanted to cancel a $750 million deal for a dozen helicopters made by AgustaWestland, the AngloItalian subsidiary of Italy’s Finmeccanica, over bribery claims.

That will not make Cameron’s job of persuading India to buy more civil and military hardware any easier.

But at a time when Britain’s government is struggling to get its own

economy growing, officials see India, which is projected to become the world’s third largest economy by 2050, as a strategic partner whose success could help the British economy grow in the decades ahead. Cameron will remind the Indian government that the Eurofighter jet - which is partly built in Britain - remains an attractive option if New Delhi decides to review its multi-billion dollar deal to buy 126 French-made Rafale fighters.

A British government source said yesterday that London had noted that Hollande had not finalized the Rafale fighter jet deal during his own trip.

“Hollande was in India this week and a deal has not been signed so we will want to find out from the Indians how their talks are progressing with the French,” the source said.

An official from Cameron’s office suggested the Eurofighter offer remained on the negotiating table.

“We respect the fact that the Indians have chosen their preferred bidder and are currently negotiating with the

French. (But) of course, we will continue to promote Eurofighter as a great fast jet not just in India but around the world.”

Cameron’s visit to India, a country that won independence from Britain in 1947 and whose colonial history remains a sensitive subject for many Indians, will last from February 18 to February 20 and take in New Delhi and Mumbai.

Cameron says the two countries enjoy a “special relationship”, a term usually reserved for Britain’s ties with the United States, but it is a relationship undergoing profound change. For now, Britain’s economy is the sixth largest in the world and India’s the 10th. But India is forecast to overtake its old colonial master.

TATA group, an Indian company that owns car maker Jaguar Land Rover, is now Britain’s biggest employer in the manufacturing sector and, in a nod to how the relationship is evolving, London will stop giving India foreign aid after 2015.

Cameron will be accompanied by a large

business delegation, which one of its participants told Reuters was the biggest trade mission of its kind since the 1970s. Another big trade mission in 2010 failed to yield the gains Cameron had hoped for.

He is expected to lobby India to open up its economy to foreign investment to allow retailers, such as Britain’s Tesco, to open outlets there amid frustration that many of the sectors where British business excels remain partly or fully closed to foreign investors.

India is forecast to spend $1 trillion in the next five years on infrastructure and Britain is hoping its firms may win some of those contracts.

Britain is also keen to persuade more Indians to study in the UK. Some of its companies have also run into problems.

Mobile phone operator Vodafone has repeatedly clashed with the Indian authorities over taxes, oil company Royal Dutch/Shell has asked the British government to raise a tax dispute it has with India during Cameron’s visit, and

David Cameron

energy giant Cairn has faced problems too.

Cameron’s aim is to double trade between the two nations from 11.5 billion pounds in 2010, when he last visited, to 23 billion pounds in 2015. Officials say that goal remains on track and that bilateral trade rose by around

23 percent in 2010 and 2011.

Cameron is expected to meet Manmohan Singh, his Indian counterpart, and may also have talks with President Pranab Mukherjee as well as with Sonia Gandhi, chairperson of the ruling Indian National Congress party.

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Saturday February 16, 2013

Saturday February 16, 2013

MTV CHANNEL 14/ CABLE 65 Sign on 06:00 hrs - Living Word presentation 06:30 hrs - Peace Love & Harmony (live) 07:00 hrs - Dabi’s bhajan Hour 07:30 hrs - Times of Refreshing (live) 08:00 hrs - Full Life Broadcast with Pastor Findlay 08:30 hrs - News Update 09:30 hrs - Living the Life 10:00 hrs - Camille’s Institute Presentation 10:30 hrs - Children Movie: Outback 12:30 hrs - Cartoon 13:00 hrs - Youth excel…with Ms. Diva 13:30 hrs - MTV School Quiz with Ms. Diva 14:00 hrs - National Geographic: Animals are Beautiful People

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15:00 hrs - National Geographic: Animal Kingdom: Life at the edge 16:00 hrs - Sitcom 16:30 hrs - Alabama Trading Music break 17:00 hrs - Birthdays & other Greetings 17:15 hrs - Death Announcements/ In Memoriam 17:30 hrs - Sitcom 18:00 hrs - Searching the Scriptures 18:30 hrs - Cabinet Briefing 19:00 hrs - Apex Forum (Live) 20:15 hrs - MTV music break 20:30 hrs - Indian Movie: Ra-one 22:00 hrs - English Movie: Dredd Sign off NCN CHANNEL 11 02:00 hrs – NCN Late Edition (R/B) 02:30 hrs – Late Nite with

GINA 03:00 hrs – Movie 05:00 hrs – Inspiration 05:30 hrs – Newtown Gospel 06:00 hrs – NCN Late Edition (R/B) 06:30 hrs – Gina Presents 07:00 hrs – Ebezener Praise Time 07:30 hrs – Feature 08:00 hrs – Weekly Digest 08:30 hrs – Pulse Beat 09:00 hrs – Youth Expressions 10:00 hrs – Children’s Mash Parade - Live 13:00 hrs – Epic Hype 13:30 hrs – The Insider 14:00 hrs – Save the Children 14:15 hrs – A Bite of China – The Story of Staple Food 15:00 hrs – Revelation & Power 16:00 hrs – Feature 17:30 hrs – Choices 18:00 hrs – NCN News Magazine – Live

Saturday February 16, 2013 ARIES (Mar. 21–Apr. 19) You don’t have the right to boss everyone around just because you think you know the best route to the top of the mountain. Remind yourself that there are many ways to get to the same place.

TAURUS (Apr. 20–May 20) It’s challenging to settle your energies enough to make the most of the day because you could become obsessed with overcoming someone’s resistance to your efforts.

GEMINI (May 21–June 20) If you are worried about something at work today, it’s probably not a trivial issue.

However, it’s helpful to understand that your irritability may be stirred up because you feel trapped by your responsibilities.

CANCER (June 21–July 22) When you hide your annoyance, it can transform into resentment. Others probably know there is something you’re not saying today, so they might become angry with you for holding back.

LEO (July 23–Aug. 22) Leading by example is more effective than by intimidation. Luckily, you have a deep reserve of physical and mental energy now, and if you apply it carefully you can make these days really count. today if you use it wisely.

VIRGO (Aug. 23–Sept. 22) Although your business and personal relationships may introduce instability into your life now, you still have someone you can lean on.

LIBRA (Sept. 23–Oct. 22) Your simple goal today is to turn an unpleasant c h o r e into an enjoyable activity. Your best chance of achieving satisfaction is by doing what you do best — diplomatically smoothing over the rough spots so others can get along.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23–Nov. 21) Control issues may come to the forefront of your life today. You might feel as if your willpower is functioning at a high level, but your singular concentration on a specific task can actually contribute to a ruthless attitude.

SAGIT (Nov. 22–Dec. 21) You are willing to set aside your sense of urgency and work toward a long-term goal now. Although you have more patience than usual, you’re still uncertain about how long you can wait before setting out on a new course.

CAPRI (Dec. 22–Jan. 19) You are exceptionally conscious of your goals now and know how you can achieve them.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20–Feb. 18) You have your work in front of you and you won’t let anything prevent you from finishing what you set out to do today.

PISCES (Feb. 19–Mar. 20) You feel as if you’re working selflessly for some higher cause today, but it might be more obvious to you than to anyone else.

18:30 hrs – Between the Lines (R/B) 19:00 hrs – Feature 19:30 hrs – President’s Diary 20:00 hrs – 3d/daily millions/ play de dream/lotto draw 20:05 hrs – Video Hit List 21:05 hrs – Bollywood Hits 22:00 hrs – Feature 23:00 hrs – Movie DTV CHANNEL 8 08:55 hrs. Sign On 09:00 hrs. Power Ranger Samurai 10:00 hrs. Supah Ninjas

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11:00 hrs. The Cosby Show 11:30 hrs. Prime News 12:00 hrs. DTV’s Festival of Biblical Movies for the Lenten Season: “Sodom & Gomorrah” 17:00 hrs. The Baptist Hour 18:00 hrs. World News 18:30 hrs. Nightly News 19:00 hrs. Greetings and Announcements 20:00 hrs. Alliance on the Move (Live) 21:00 hrs. Indian Movie 00:00 hrs. Sign Off

Guides are subjected to change without notice

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Saturday February 16, 2013

Saturday February 16, 2013

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Edwards boosts form, Barbados with 110 against Guyana Kirk Edwards celebrates his hundred (WICB)

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Kirk Edwards gained a timely boost of form and confidence with his fifth first-class hundred to put Barbados in charge early against Guyana in the Regional 4-Day Tournament yesterday.

The Barbados captain was undefeated on 110 to lead his side to 267 for four in their first innings before rain then bad light brought the close 17 overs early on the opening day of their second round match at Kensington Oval.

Edwards was fortunate on 95, when long-on fielder Assad Fudadin muffed a skier off a delivery from leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo and has so far struck 12 fours and two sixes from 177 balls in 279 minutes at the crease. He reached his milestone from 154 balls with a deuce, when he drove Christopher Barnwell firmly straight and mid-on fielder Tagenarine Chanderpaul moving to his left failed to make a diving

stop.

Edwards, batting with a severe open stance following a year of lost form and confidence, is looking to stake a claim for a place in the West Indies batting order for the upcoming International Home Series against Zimbabwe. He added 164 for the fourth wicket with lefthander Jonathan Carter, when Barbados stumbled to 73 for three after they were greeted by a typically hard, true pitch.

Carter supported with 85 that included 13 fours and one six from 154 balls in 174 minutes before he was caught behind in the only over from part-time off-spinner Leon Johnson essaying a cut.

He reached his 50 from 94 balls, when he punched a delivery from left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul, the Guyana captain, through square cover for his eighth four and steadied the ship for Barbados.

Keon Joseph gave Guyana an early

NSC hosts Floor Hockey training for Special Schools, related agencies The National Sports Commission will be hosting a Floor Hockey Training Programme for staff of Special Schools and other interested agencies. Training will be conducted by Sports Organizer, Wilton Spencer on February 19 and 20, 2013 commencing 09:30hrs to 11:30h at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.

Institutions invited to participate are:- David Rose School for the Handicapped, Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre, St. Barnabas Special School, Special Needs School, East Bank Demerara

and Community Based Rehabilitation Programme.

The objective of the floor hockey is to equip participants to become proficient to conduct similar sessions for the benefit of athletes with intellectual disabilities. The National Sports Commission, in its continued effort to equip staffs of Special Schools, has already conducted training in disciplines such as table tennis, bocce and cricket.

A date is to be announced later, for the football segment.

Mr Spencer can be contacted on telephone 623-4673.

breakthrough, removing Kraigg Brathwaite for one inside the first half-hour, when the Barbados opener became the first of three victims to wicketkeeper Derwin Christian. Ronsford Beaton set the Barbadians back, when Rashidi Boucher made 28 before he edged to Christian, leaving the home team 33 for two.

Kyle Hope joined Edwards and struck the ball with crisply before he was caught at forward short leg

off Permaul for 16 from a batpad catch, as Barbados reached 97 for three at lunch.

Rain delayed the start after the interval, but Edwards and Carter resumed, batting with aplomb to take the Barbadians to 189 for three at tea.

A second stoppage for rain after tea lasted 45 minutes before Edwards and Carter returned to carry on merrily before Permaul brought Johnson into the attack and he made a timely intervention

just when it appeared the two Barbadian batsmen were going to unleash.

The hosts made one change to their side, replacing Kevin Stoute with Javon Searles, but the Guyanese are playing an unchanged lineup. Guyana are third in the standings with six points, after taking first innings points over Leeward Islands in their drawn first round match, and Barbados are tied at the bottom with Combined Campuses & Colleges with no

points following a 63-run loss in their opening match against Jamaica.

Meanwhile, in the other match Windwards Islands reached 24/0 in reply to T&T’s 179. Devon Smith 16* and Tyronne Theophile 6* were the not out batsmen at stumps.

For T&T Jason Mohammed hit 57, Justin Guillen 33 and Denesh Ramdin 20 led the batting.

Bowling for the Windwards Kenroy Peters took 2 wickets.

Page 30

Kaieteur News

Saturday February 16, 2013

England thrash NZ to claim Twenty20 series WELLINGTON (Reuters) - England’s opening batsmen Alex Hales and Michael Lumb made a mockery of the New Zealand bowling attack to guide the visitors to a 10wicket win in their third Twenty20 international and a 2-1 series victory on Friday.

After England’s bowlers restricted New Zealand to 139 for eight, Hales blasted 80 off 42 balls while Lumb scored 53, including a six that landed on the roof to win the match and bring up his half century, as the pair pushed England to victory in just 12.4 overs.

“The power the two openers have shown there was pretty spectacular,” England captain Stuart Broad told reporters. “What was it 12, 13 overs to chase down 140?

“We know that early wickets kill you in Twenty20 cricket so it was great to see the guys get used to the wicket and take their time for two or three overs and then once Alex Hales got going it looked hard to stop him.”

Much of England’s damage was done in the fifth over when Ian Butler lost his composure and sprayed the ball all over the wicket, yielding five wides, four leg byes and three further boundaries by Hales.

Hales then took to Mitchell McClenaghan in the 11th over, blasting a six, a four and two more sixes in four successive deliveries to race towards the victory target on the drop-in pitch at Wellington Regional Stadium.

“We were blown off the park,” New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum said.

“Batting, bowling and fielding nowhere near the standard it needed to be. England were ruthless in their approach and thoroughly deserved their victory.”

AGGRESSIVE BOWLING

Martin Guptill had anchored New Zealand’s innings, scoring 59 runs off 55 balls, but was forced to work the ball around rather than attack as wickets kept falling at the other end.

Guptill tried to force the pace at the end of New Zealand’s innings but was dismissed in the penultimate over to end any chance of the hosts posting a score in excess of 150.

England’s frontline pace bowlers were much more aggressive than in the second match in Hamilton and bowled short of a length, hurrying the New Zealand batsmen into mistimed pull and hook shots with the ball skying into the outfield.

Broad finished with three for 15 from four overs, while Jade Dernbach also took 3-36, while Steve Finn was bristling

aggression as he conceded just 18 runs from four overs.

“We knew the wicket would be good and outfield potentially a bit slow, but the way we started with the ball, the tone we set was fantastic,” Broad said. “We probably kept them to 20-30 (runs) under par.

“All round, probably the most powerful performance I have seen from an England side.”

England won the series after taking the first match in Auckland by 40 runs, while New Zealand won the second in Hamilton by 55 runs.

The first game of the three-match one day series will be in Hamilton on Sunday.

Scores: England 143 for 0 (Hales 80*, Lumb 53*) beat New Zealand 139 for 8 (Guptill 59, Broad 3-15) by 10 wickets.

The Milo Under-20 Schools Football Competition rumbles on today and tomorrow with three matches scheduled each day, at the Ministry of Education ground on Carifesta Avenue.

In today’s round of

matches, Charlestown Secondary takes on Christ Church at 12:00hrs and that will be followed by the encounter bewteen Ascension and North Georgetown from 13:50hrs, while Tucville and St. George’s collide in what is

being touted as a virtual final.

In tomorrow’s schedule, Tutorial High tackles St. John’s College from 12:00hrs, before Cummings Lodge square off against South Ruimveldt at 13:50hrs and in the final game of the day, Queen’s College battles Bishop’s High in another matchup that should produce fireworks. According to the Organisers, Petra Organisation, this will be the final phase of the preliminary rounds after which the knockout segment will commence.

Michael Lumb and Alex Hales celebrate the series victory (Getty Images)

Milo U-20 Schools Football resumes today

Saturday February 16, 2013

Kaieteur News

Blazing Gayle fires Dhaka into final Chris Gayle powered to his tenth Twenty20 hundred in Dhaka Gladiators’ Race to the Final, but despite the huge target of 197 the Sylhet Royals gave spirited chase, and ultimately fell just short of the 24 runs they needed in the final over.

With five runs needed off the last ball, Elton Chigumbura swung Mashrafe Mortaza to deep midwicket, where Darren Stevens held the catch to seal Gladiators’ berth in the final of the BPL. Royals captain Mushfiqur Rahim had batted steadily for most of the chase, keeping his side on par with the Gladiators at the 10th and 15th-over marks. He had an 82-run stand with Dwayne Smith, who made 41, for the third wicket and added 46 runs with Nazmul Hossain Milon.

With 55 to defend in the last four overs, the Gladiators got two good overs from Alfonso Thomas and Shakib Al Hasan. Thomas bowled a good penultimate over to give his captain Mashrafe Mortaza 24 runs to defend in the 20th. He nearly made a mess of it, bowling a crucial no-ball when Anamul Haque had caught Mushfiqur, who was eventually run out off the next ball for 86 off 44 balls.

Chigumbura was dropped soon after by Raqibul Hasan at deep square leg but was not able to hit the final ball over the boundary.

The result validated Gladiators’ last-minute buy -

Chris Gayle

Gayle. The Jamaican blasted 114 off 51 deliveries, hitting 12 towering sixes. His ninth six was the longest in the tournament at 103 metres and it nearly reached the second tier of the stands behind longon. It was the third hundred of the season, and the highest so far. The Royals’ fielders stood with hands on hips and necks craned, following the path of those big hits. They had been on top until the 10th over, having reduced the Gladiators to 64 for 5.

Tillakaratne Dilshan was out off the first ball of the innings to Sohag Gazi, before Mohammad Ashraful was caught at fine leg off Chigumbura. Shakib Al Hasan blasted 38 off 21 balls with four sixes but he was cleaned up by debutant Sajidul Islam, who then removed Stevens off the next ball. Anamul’s dismissal in the ninth over was a major blow, but it just

opened up the arena to two of the biggest hitters in the field.

The Gayle-Kieron Pollard partnership played out two quiet overs, but the pair got going in the 14th over, taking 24 off Suharwadi Shuvo.

Gayle scored 23 of those, striking three sixes and a boundary. He smashed Nazmul Hossain Milon for 29 runs in the 17th over, and took 16 off Sajidul in the next, also bringing up his century. He soon got out, and the Gladiators’ tail couldn’t take the total past the 200-run mark.

The result meant the Royals will have to face the winner of the knockout match between Chittagong Kings and Duronto Rajshahi.

Scores: Dhaka Gladiators 197 for 9 (Gayle 114, Sajidul 3-23) beat Sylhet Royals 193 for 6 (Mushfiqur 86) by four runs.

East German Olympic shot put...

From page 34 comment, due to ill health.

Kaudelka said that in making the film she wanted to portray the wider aspects of East German sport, beyond the doping.

“Reducing everything to the issue of doping belies what I personally went through. On one hand, the competitive sports system in East Germany was even more perfidious and subtle than is usually shown. The ensuing problems went way beyond the much-cited practice of doping,” she said in a statement.

“On the other hand, this one-sided perception and pigeonholing the athletes into perpetrator and victim do not do justice to the incredible physical and mental accomplishments of a great number of people.”

The German athletics federation views records from before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 as tainted but has failed to have them erased for fear of legal repercussions from the athletes. Today up to 2,000 former athletes are

seriously ill, suffering from tumours, heart defects, infertility, depression, bulimia, and circulation and spinal problems. Some have died, others are waiting to see what health problems their children have inherited.

One of the better-known cases is that of shot putter Heidi Krieger, whose body with its artificially inflated

muscles was so alien to her that she changed her sex and name in 1997.

In 2000 Ewald was convicted of causing bodily harm and given a 22-month suspended sentence. The few trainers and doctors who were charged were given moderate fines or suspended sentences.

Few ever expressed regret.

Page 31

FIFA PLANS BIOLOGICAL PROFILING AT WORLD CUP ZURICH (Reuters) - FIFA plans to use biological profiling of players at this year’s Confederations Cup and next year’s World Cup in its efforts to tackle doping, soccer’s governing body on Friday.

“FIFA is developing plans to introduce this new tool, including a steroid profile through urine and a blood profile, for the Confederations Cup and 2014 World Cup Brazil, where in and out-of-competition tests would be conducted on all participating players,” FIFA said in a statement.

FIFA began a pilot project in 2011 to capture players’ individual steroid profile with tests on the participants at the World Club Cup in Japan. It said that 178 out-ofcompetition tests were conducted in 2011 and 184 at the same tournament in 2012.

FIFA added that it was developing the hormonal profiling project, a new initiative in co-operation with the WADA-accredited laboratory in Switzerland.

“FIFA was the first

international organisation for team sport to start with longitudinal profiles,” said Michel D’Hooge, head of FIFA’s medical committee.

“We have been testing this at the World Club Cup in 2011 and 2012, we will continue at the Confederations Cup 2013 with blood testing unannounced at training camps and games.

“It’s our commitment to have all players participating at the 2014 FIFA World Cup having biological profiles.”

Football has long viewed itself as largely immune from the use of performance enhancing drugs which has badly tarnished other sports such as cycling.

However, Arsene Wenger, manager of English Premiership side Arsenal, said last week that the sport needed more blood tests. “It is very difficult for me to believe that at a World Cup, where you have 740 players, you come out with zero problems.

Yet mathematically that is what happens every time,” he

said.

World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) president John Fahey met his FIFA counterpart Sepp Blatter on Thursday and said he was satisfied with FIFA’s efforts.

“We are very interested in continuing the work on biological profiles,” he said in the FIFA statement. “WADA is very satisfied with the commitment of FIFA on the biological profiles.”

“There is always more which can be done in the fight against doping, but we know FIFA has always been serious in this domain,” he added.

“We think the domestic leagues can complement what FIFA is already doing.”

WADA registered 28,587 doping samples in football worldwide in 2011 with 119 failed tests, including 40 cases of cannabinoids and 19 of anabolic steroids.

The latter included five North Korea players at the women’s World Cup 2011 who tested positive for anabolic steroids originating from traditional Chinese medicine, FIFA said.

Page 32

Charlotte Edwards' unbeaten ton guided England to victory (Getty Images)

Kaieteur News

Saturday February 16, 2013

Women’s World Cup 2013, play-offs...

Edwards guides England to third place ESPNcricinfo - An unbeaten century from England captain Charlotte Edwards led her team to a four-wicket win against New Zealand, which secured third place in the Women’s World Cup. In what may be Edwards’ last World Cup game, she guided the chase of 221 with an innings of 106 off 121 balls, equalling the most centuries in women’s ODIs - eight.

After being put in to bat, New Zealand began sedately with a couple of productive partnerships, before the runout of Sophie Devine and three middle-order wickets to spinner Holly Colvin hurt them. Suzie Bates, the highest run-getter in the tournament, had been dismissed for 21, but No. 3 Amy Satterthwaite, who had scored a century in her previous match, stayed until the 47th over to score 85 and guide her side past 200.

England lost Danielle Wyatt early wicket in the chase, but were more assured thereafter. Edwards added 78 with Sarah Taylor, 53 with Lydia Greenway, and 58 with

Arran Brindle to help them to 199 for 3 in the 42nd over.

They then lost three wickets for three runs, before Laura Marsh and Edwards took England home. Offspinner Lucy Doolan was New Zealand’s most productive bowler, taking 3 for 50 in her ten overs.

Edwards was happy to have contributed to a fruitful World Cup campaign. “I came into this tournament after having worked incredibly hard over the winter - not just on my skills, but I had also worked on my fitness. It’s really nice to reap rewards of that.

Two hundreds in this tournament, I am really proud of that, for me it’s been about me contributing to the team and today was about getting to third place and ending the tournament on a high,” she said.

New Zealand’s captain Bates felt her team needed 30 more runs in their innings. Her team, she said, played their worst in their final three games of the tournament.

“I think the last three games, we probably played our worst cricket which is what we will probably remember from the tournament. The game against West Indies where we lost hurt us badly and we didn’t play well enough.”

Scores: England 222 for 6 (Edwards 106*, Doolan 350) beat New Zealand 220 for 8 (Satterthwaite 85, Colvin 3-31) by four wickets.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka captain Shashikala Siriwardene, with an all-round display, helped her team to the fifth position in the tournament as South Africa were beaten by 88 runs.

After choosing to bat, Sri Lanka found themselves at a precarious 14 for 2 in the fourth over. Chamari Atapattu and Deepika Rasangika steadied the innings thereafter to put on 68 runs for the third wicket.

Rasangika was dismissed in the 22nd over, and the new batsman, Siriwardene continued to build on the previous partnership with an

82-run stand with Atapattu, who finished as the highest scorer in the innings with 52.

Siriwardene was stumped on 44, sending in bowler Eshani Kaushalya to add impetus to the score as she scored a quick 43, off 31 balls. Sri Lanka finished with a competitive 244 for 7.

South Africa were unable to put on substantial partnerships in their chase, as they lost wickets at crucial intervals through their innings.

Chamani Seneviratna and Sripali Weerakkody helped dismiss the top order, and they were reduced to 49 for 4 in 17 overs.

From there on, Siriwardene took over as she picked up 4 for 32 to help finish off the tail. Shandre Fritz was the only batsman to offer any resistance; she scored 54 before being run out by Kaushalya.

Scores: Sri Lanka 244 for 7 (Atapattu 52, Siriwardene 44) beat South Africa 156 (Fritz 54, Siriwardene 4-32) by 88 runs.

Saturday February 16, 2013

Kaieteur News

Ajmal rocks S.Africa on stormy day in Newlands CAPE TOWN (Reuters) Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal ripped through South Africa’s batting to leave them reeling on 139 for five at the end of a controversial second day in the second test at Newlands on Friday.

Ajmal grabbed five for 41 but his brilliant first-innings performance was almost overshadowed by three incidents involving umpire Steve Davis.

South Africa trail by 199 runs having earlier in the day bowled Pakistan out for 338, Vernon Philander picking up five for 59.

The most heated debate occurred after Jacques Kallis was given out lbw for two off Ajmal by third umpire Billy Bowden. Davis had lifted his finger for what seemed to be a catch off bat and pad and the unhappy Kallis decided to opt for a television review.

Hot-spot showed no edge but the replay revealed the ball would have gone on to clip the outside of leg stump and he was given out lbw.

Kallis argued that he should not be given out as the original bat-pad decision was wrong.

However, after lengthy talks between Davis and Bowden, the South African had to walk back to the pavilion.

The International Cricket Council’s Playing Control Team (PCT), which includes the umpires, acknowledged the officials had made “an honest error”. “The umpires followed usual principles in giving Kallis out lbw on the umpire’s call when the review was for the batsman out caught. This is because the normal principle is that an appeal covers all forms of dismissal,” the PCT said in a statement.

“However, the playing conditions state that when the third umpire observes the batsman could be out by another mode of dismissal, the decision being reviewed using DRS (Decision Review System) should be as if the batsman had been originally given not out.

“Therefore, in this instance, Kallis ... should not have been given out lbw.”

Ajmal bowled non-stop for 25 overs from just before tea to hand the initiative to Pakistan.

Captain Graeme Smith was his first victim, trapped lbw for 19 while attempting a sweep. Davis originally said it was not out but the visitors asked for a review and it showed the ball would have hit the stumps.

INSIDE EDGE

Moses Kiptanui claims doping is rife among Kenya’s athletes Moses Kiptanui, one of most successful runners in Kenyan history, claims doping is rife among athletes there. The three-times 3,000m steeplechase world champion and coach alleges many athletes use performanceenhancing drugs as a shortcut to wealth. “The information shows that there are a good number of athletes out there who are using drugs,” said Kiptanui.

But David Okeyo, secretary-general of Athletics Kenya, said Kiptanui should provide evidence to back up his claims. Okeyo also called on the 1991, 1993 and 1995 world champion to name names. In a BBC interview, Kiptanui, 42, said: “They

Saeed Ajmal took five wickets (Getty Images) Azhar Ali then took an excellent one-handed catch at short leg to dismiss Alviro Petersen for 17, Ajmal finding an inside edge that deflected off the pads.

Hashim Amla (25) was then struck on the pads playing back to Ajmal. Once again Davis gave it not out but the lbw shout was overturned on review. Faf du Plessis took more than two hours to make 28 before his long vigil was ended when he was caught at slip by Younus Khan off Ajmal.

AB de Villiers (24) and Dean Elgar (11) were the unbeaten batsmen when stumps were drawn.

“The conditions here are totally different to the first test {at the Wanderers),” said Whatmore, referring to his team’s 211-run defeat.

“In that match the home side were never under any pressure. This wicket will get harder to bat on so we are happy with our position.”

Earlier, Philander registered his ninth fivewicket haul in tests to bowl Pakistan out on the stroke of lunch. Philander removed Asad Shafiq for 111 with his first ball of the day before claiming the scalps of Sarfraz Ahmed (13) and Umar Gul (0).

Tanvir Ahmed (44) and Ajmal (21 not out) put on 64 for the ninth wicket until the former fell to Robin Peterson. Offspinner Peterson also accounted for the final wicket of Mohammed Irfan (6).

The third and final match of the series is at Centurion.

Scores: South Africa 139 for 5 (Ajmal 5-41) trail Pakistan 338 (Shafiq 111, Younis 111, Philander 5-59) by 199 runs.

Page 33

Moses Kiptanui want to get money by all means. Either by a genuine way or another way. “We have put rules in place. If we don’t use these rules then athletes will still use these drugs.”

Kiptanui also alleges widespread corruption

around the world. “If you can bribe somebody today or tomorrow, then it [a test result] is gone,” he added.

“All over the world there is corruption in sport. “It is not only a matter in Kenya.”

Last September, Kenya’s athletics authorities revealed they were investigating allegations of widespread doping. The investigation was launched after media allegations that doctors had given banned substances to runners at a high-altitude training facility. More than 40 leading Kenyan athletes were subjected to out-ofcompetition blood tests after a team of overseas drugtesters paid an unannounced visit to the Rift Valley base.

It followed reports in November that the World Anti-Doping Agency expressed frustration at a lack of communication from sporting authorities.

In June, distance runner Mathew Kisorio failed a drugs test at Kenya’s national championships and claimed doping was commonplace.

Athletics Kenya head Isaiah Kiplagat said at the time that most athletes were “clean”, but that he took the claims seriously.

“We are carrying out an investigation,” he said. “We are working with other authorities to ensure that... if this true, [we can] then take action appropriately on the culprits.”

Port Mourant Cricket Club elects executives The Port Mourant Cricket Club, which was once one of the most feared clubs in Guyana cricket, recently selected its executive to chart the way forward for the next year.

The club recently held its Annual General Meeting and Elections for office bearers for the 2013/2014 term at the Port Mourant Community Centre and the following persons were elected to serve on the executive The Honorary president is Mustapha Ali; Mr. Gregory Persaud was elected as president with Satynand Persaud as the vice president.

Godwyn Allicock was elected as the Secretary with Kelvin

Seepersaud filling the position as Treasurer. They will be assisted by Omeshwar Sirikishun who was elected as the assistant Secretary/Treasurer.

Seven committee members were also elected and they are former national player Homchand Pooran, Vivkawand Baboolall, Intikhab Sakoor, Francis Sahadupal, Krisendat Nandu, Lennard Persaud and Motie Chatur. Two members were also named as representatives of the club on the Berbice Cricket Board with Godwyn Allicock and Omeshwar Sirikishun being the two persons named.

Two alternates were also named with Godfrey Persaud

and Satynand Puran being so delegated. Godwyn Allicock will serve as team manager for all Teams representing the club.

Port Mourant has produced a number of West Indies cricketers including John Trim, Basil Butcher, Joe Solomon, Rohan Kanhai, Ivan Madray Alvin Kallicharran and Mahendra Nagamootoo.

Former national player Andre Percival a product of Port Mourant has the distinction of being the only Guyanese captain to ever win three consecutive championships U 19 championships in 1992, 1993 and 1994.

Port Mourant Cricket club also has the distinction of

producing the Guyana U19 captain for six consecutive years with four persons filling the breach. The tradition started with all rounder Arjune Nandu skippering the team in 1991 then with Andre Percival three years in 92, 93 and 94. The tradition was continued by the Nagamootoo brothers Mahendra and Vishal who won the titles in 1995 when Mahendra Nagamootoo was at the helm and in 1996 when Vishal Nagamootoo led Guyana to victory. The famous Etwaroo brothers Romain, Reginald and Tyrone were also members of the Port Mourant Cricket club.

Page 34

Kaieteur News

Saturday February 16, 2013

BLADE RUNNER PISTORIUS SOBS IN COURT AFTER MURDER CHARGE

PRETORIA (Reuters) South African ‘Blade Runner’ Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee who became one of the biggest names in world athletics, broke down in tears on Friday after he was charged in court with shooting dead his girlfriend in his Pretoria home.

The 26-year-old Olympic and Paralympic superstar stood with head bowed in front of magistrate Desmond Nair to hear the charge that he had murdered model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius then started sobbing, covering his face with his hands. “Take it easy,” Nair told him. “Come take a seat.”

The case has stunned a nation that revered ‘the fastest man on no legs’ as a hero who managed to compete at the highest levels of sport despite being born without a fibula in either leg.

Prosecutors told the Pretoria court the shooting of 30-year-old Steenkamp in the early hours of Thursday was pre-meditated.

Pistorius faces life in prison if found guilty.

He did not enter a plea but a statement issued by his family and London-based agent said the charge was disputed “in the strongest possible terms”.

“He (Pistorius) has made it very clear that he would like to send his deepest sympathies to the family of Reeva,” the statement said, in the first message attributed to him since his arrest.

Steenkamp was found shot dead in Pistorius’s plush home in the middle of a heavily guarded gated complex in the northern outskirts of the capital, police said.

The Afrikaans-language Beeld newspaper said she was hit four times, in the head, chest, pelvis and hand. “The security guards found Pistorius by Steenkamp’s body in the bathroom,” the paper said on its website, citing a neighbor. “The door had bullet holes right through it.”

Defence lawyer Kenny Oldwage said his client had an “extremely traumatized

state of mind”. He did not request bail before proceedings were adjourned until February 19.

GOLDEN BOY LOSES SHINE Early reports of the shooting suggested Pistorius may have mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder, but police said neighbors had heard noises before the shots and there had been previous “domestic” incidents at the house. Pistorius said nothing during the 40-minute hearing.

His father, Henke, and brother, Carl, sat directly behind him in the packed court-room, occasionally leaning forward to give him a pat on the shoulder. His mother died in 2002 when he was 15 years old - a tragedy that he said spurred him on in his quest to compete as an able-bodied athlete.

Along with Lance Armstrong’s recovery from testicular cancer to win the Tour de France - an achievement now brought low by his admission of

South African ‘Blade Runner’ Oscar Pistorius (centre) is escorted by police during his court appearance in Pretoria February 15, 2013.

REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko doping - Pistorius’ tale of triumph over adversity was one of the most powerful in the history of sport.

South African newspapers plastered Steenkamp’s killing across their front pages, reflecting shock and dismay at the fall of a man who commanded rare respect on all sides of the racial divides that persist in Nelson Mandela’s “Rainbow Nation” 19 years after the end of apartheid.

“Golden Boy Loses Shine” ran a front page headline in the Sowetan, beside a picture of Pistorius, head bowed in a grey hooded tracksuit being led away from a police station.

Callers to morning radio shows expressed grief at the death of Steenkamp, who had been due to give a talk at a Johannesburg school this week about violence against

women.

There was also widespread disbelief at the fate of a sportsman regarded as a genuinely “good guy”.

“How is it possible for one so high to fall so low so quickly?” Talk Radio 702 host John Robbie said.

ADVERTS PULLED South Africa’s M-Net cable TV channel immediately pulled adverts featuring Pistorius off air but most of his sponsors, including sports apparel group Nike, said they would not make any decisions until the police investigation was completed.

Pistorius’ endorsements and sponsorships, which also include British telecoms firm BT, sunglasses maker Oakley and French designer Thierry Mugler, are thought to be worth as much as $2 million a year.

He reached the pinnacle

of his fame in London 2012 when he became the first double amputee to run in the Olympics, reaching the 400metres semi-finals.

In last year’s Paralympics he suffered his first loss over 200 meters in nine years. After the race he questioned the legitimacy of Brazilian winner Alan Oliveira’s prosthetic blades, but was quick to express regret for the comments. Near the home, people who knew Pistorius paid tribute to a much-loved local hero. “Some of us were in tears,” said Precious, who works at a petrol station where Pistorius used to fill up his McLaren supercar, signing autographs and picking up the tab for people in the convenience store.

“He was just so kind to everyone,” said Precious, who declined to give her family name.

East German Olympic shot put champion admits doping BERLIN (Reuters) Former East German Olympic shot put champion and threetimes world record breaker Udo Beyer has admitted doping in a new documentary film about the lives of top athletes in the socialist state.

In the film, “I will not lose”, showing at this year’s Berlin film festival, Beyer who won gold at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and was athletics team captain says, “I knew about everything that was happening to me. I decided for myself.”

East Germany won 40 gold medals at the Montreal Olympics, putting it second in the medals table behind the Soviet Union. The much larger West Germany won only 10.

Two years earlier, Manfred Ewald, leader of East

Germany’s sports federation, launched a top-secret centralised doping programme. It was a time, at the height of the Cold War, when every socialist gold was an ideological victory over the west.

Experts believe that during the 1970s and 1980s up to 10,000 sportsmen and women were doped, the overwhelming majority without their knowledge.

Results came swiftly. East Germany, a country of some 17 million, almost doubled its gold medal tally from one Olympics to the next.

The film was directed by Sandra Kaudelka, herself a diver who became unwillingly entangled in the state’s competitive sports machine - which identified promising youngesters, and

put them through punishing training schemes and also dished out the infamous “little blue pills” which contained anabolic steroids.

In the film, according to its media officer, Beyer, 57, tells Kaudelka, “I rejected some things, others I did. I knew. I decided. Nothing was slipped secretly into the tea.”

Asked by Kaudelka if he felt his victory was unjustified he says: “No, absolutely not. I am a rightful winner because I was the best in the competition.”

“Doping or other supporting measures only amount to about two or three percent of performance - the rest is hard work,” he said.

Beyer, who now runs a travel agency business in Potsdam, was unavailable to (Continued on page 31)

Saturday February 16, 2013

Kaieteur News

Seniority and agility -‘Corn man’ Stephenson exemplifies both concepts in fitness run He was born on March 6, 1953 and in a mere few weeks would be celebrating his 59th birth anniversary yet his crisp gait and agile movements belie this fact.

He sports a healthy stock of ‘dreadlocks’ and graying beard; the only evidence that he is advanced in age.

He is Carlton Stephenson and has earned the sobriquet ‘Corn man’ after perfecting the art of boiling corn to a delectable consummation using local products the likes of coconut milk, a variety of seasonings the likes of thyme, eschallot and peppers which, when simmered produces an appetizing product that sells like hotcakes.

Additionally, ‘Corn man’ is a health enthusiast who subscribes to the view that healthy eating supported by rigorous exercises contributes to longevity. It is this belief that has inspired him to become involved in marathon events and in 2002 completed a 23 miles journey from his home village, Sophia, all the way to Soesdyke and

Carlton Stephenson back to the place of origin.

Thereafter, the senior athlete has made the event into a yearly ritual and this year he plans to journey from his Sophia base up to the Uitvlugt Community Centre WCD, one day before revelers take to the street for the 2013 Mashramani Float Parade.

Stephenson has no qualms going the journey all alone but he wishes to encourage other fitness conscious citizens to participate in the event. “I am appalled at the vast talent locally that is not being

adequately exploited,” he lamented.

He feels that Guyana has a lot of talented athletes that are yet to realize their potential and he has christened the event as an awareness run to bring this anomaly to the f o r e . “I love sports and despite my age I participated in the South American 10K race in 2011,” he revealed. Mr. Stephenson is also planning an event on Emancipation Day, August 1 next, also from Sophia to Uitvlugt and back to the place of origin. He is currently engaged in a mobilizing process and has targeted youths to participate in the event. He is also appealing to the business community and other well wishers to support the event with the requisite sponsorship.

He remains adamant that young people could use the experience to improve their standing, not only as athletes but as health conscious individuals. He could be reached at tele # 683-3119 or 672-7322.

James’ record streak ends as Heat overcome Thunder Miami Heat forward LeBron James reacts after being called for a technical foul against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first half of their NBA basketball game in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma February 14, 2013.

REUTERS/Bill Waugh

(Reuters) - LeBron James continued his sizzling form with 39 points in the Miami Heat’s 110-100 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday but missed a late three-pointer to bring his record scoring streak to an end.

James became the first NBA player to score 30 points while shooting 60 percent in six straight games on Tuesday but was unable to extend the record to seven against the Thunder, his percentage dipping to 58 on 14-for-24 shots. With the NBA approaching the midseason All Star break, James passed the 30-point mark for

the seventh game in a row and also had 12 rebounds and seven assists in the Valentine’s Day showdown between last year’s NBA finalists.

Kevin Durant scored 40 points for the Thunder but the result of the game was never in doubt after the Heat opened up a big lead in Oklahoma.

The Heat (36-14) led by as much as 23 points in the third quarter and while Oklahoma (39-14) cut the deficit to single figures in the final quarter Miami ran out comfortable winners.

Miami’s Chris Bosh scored 20 points and had 12

rebounds while Dwayne Wade chipped in with 13 points before fouling out.

It was the Heat’s seventh straight win and their sixth in a row over the Thunder, including last season’s NBA finals.

The Heat currently led the Eastern Conference while Oklahoma, who had won four games in a row by 20 points or more before losing their last two, are second to San Antonio (42-12) in the Western Conference.

The NBA will break for four days starting from Friday for the annual All Star game, to be played this year in Houston.

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Guinness ‘Greatest of de Streets’ final on tonight at Haslington

I

t is simply a case of the best four teams in the competition being rewarded for their consistent performances since the commencement of the East Coast segment of the Guinness ‘Greatest of de Streets’ over one week ago.

The four survivors Melanie ‘A’, BV ‘A’, Church Yard United of Victoria and Plaisance have thrilled fans with their silky skills and tactical superiority and when they square off tonight for the right to divide prize money in excess of $800,000 along with trophies, those who converge at the Haslington Market Tarmac could feel at ease that all those components combined would be on full display.

In the opening encounter, Plaisance takes on BV ‘A’ at

20:00 hrs and this matchup should be a riveting affair, especially with the likes of Warren Gilkes and Carlos Matthews in their lineup, while BV ‘A’ will depend heavily on the performances of Reon Hopkinson, Quacy Price and the brilliant Delroy Deen to ensure their spot in the final.

In the second semi-final, Church Yard United takes on Melanie ‘A’ and this encounter has all the hallmarks of a bruising contest and picking a winner in this game has proven to be a difficult task.

The cool, calm and collective Delroy Deen, who has been the architect of many victories for Melanie ‘A’, will once again be called upon to spearhead their quest for a place in the final.

He is expected to receive support from sharp shooting

t r o Sp

Part of the enthralling action that lit up the Haslington Market Tarmac during quarter-final play recently.

Sherman Fraser and Jermaul George, who both looked extremely lethal in their quarter-final clash against a stubborn Victoria Eagles, while Darwayne Peters is anticipated to add some more punch to their offensive line.

On the other hand,

Church Yard United has also exhibited a proclivity to be very offensive minded and looked deadly on the counter attacks and their chances of winning is just as high as that of Melanie ‘A’.

Shawn Daniels, Horace Graham and Rolex Gouveia

will lead the strike force for Church Yard United and their performances to date have been a model of consistency so to underestimate them could prove costly for any opposition.

The winners of the two

semifinals will meet in the final, while the losers play for third place.

Sixteen teams started the competition with the winner set to receive $400,000, runner-up $200,000 and 3rd place $150,000 along with trophies.

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